Pentagon chief: Iraqi strike may be ‘mistake’ by 2 sides

“Initial reports indicate the possibility one of the strikes resulted in the death of Iraqi soldiers”, a statement from the U.S. military said.

The US military said on Friday it would conduct its own investigation into the airstrike, and on Saturday US Defense Secretary Carter said evidence so far suggested it was a friendly fire incident.

USA officials say American warplanes based in Kuwait, Qatar, Turkey and elsewhere have flown almost 9,000 sorties in support of Iraqi and other ground forces battling Islamic State fighters, Philip reports, but no American troops are deployed in combat alongside the indigenous forces.

Mr Carter said he told Mr Abadi the U.S. is investigating and will work with the Iraqis. It did not specify how many were involved, but sources told CBS News Pentagon correspondent David Martin ten soldiers were killed. “Our forces got mixed”. One soldier was killed, and nine were wounded, it said.

The fact that senior officers were injured showed that it was not front-line troops that were hit, he said, adding that the weather conditions were not particularly bad.

In recent weeks, Iraq, backed by a US-led air cover, has stepped up a military campaign to drive Islamic State from the areas the jihadist group controls in the western province of Anbar. “They are preventing us from making an offensive”, he said.

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

The United States and its allies staged 20 strikes against IS militants in Iraq and Syria on Friday. He said it appeared a U.S. aircraft had carried out the air strike.