Pentagon chief makes statement on friendly fire airstrike

An airstrike by the US-led coalition aimed at Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq has killed nine Iraqi soldiers, according to Iraq’s Defence Minister. The American airstrike that may have killed a number of Iraqi soldiers on Friday seems to be “a mistake that involved both sides”, Carter said Saturday. An investigation has been opened.

An air strike by the US-led coalition fighting Isis may have killed Iraqi soldiers, the U.S. military has said. Iraqi troops with coalition forces have been preparing to try to recapture that territory.

It appears to be the same incident which Iraq’s joint operations command earlier said left 10 Iraqi soldiers killed or wounded south of the jihadist stronghold of Fallujah. “It was a troops-in-contact situation”, he said, meaning the US aircraft were likely scrambled to support Iraqi forces who were already engaged in a fight with Islamic State.

A key objective of the operation is to break Isil’s grip on Fallujah and the nearby city of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province. It said the airstrikes were done in coordination with Iraqi forces. “Our forces got mixed”.

Colonel Steve Warren, a Baghdad-based official of the coalition said, however, that the coalition would investigate any serious allegation of wrongdoing.

The coalition has intensified its air campaign against the so-called Islamic State across Iraq in recent months.

He added that the fact that senior officers got injured indicates that the airstrike didn’t target the frontline.

“We were moving forward and Daesh were retreating, when suddenly the bombing took place on the forces that were behind us”, he said.

The Iraqi army has been locked in fierce battle with ISIS militants in Fallujah and surrounding areas for six months. “As with all accusations of strike inaccuracy, we will initially do an assessment of the allegation to determine if it is credible”, the statement said.