US airstrike may have inadvertently killed Iraqi soldiers

The U.S.-led coalition said it is investigating reports that an airstrike Friday mistakenly struck and killed Iraqi troops during fighting against Islamic State militants in Fallujah, a city west of Baghdad.

Another U.S. official told ABC News that American aircraft conducted the airstrike to provide support to Iraqi troops engaged in a combat situation with ISIS fighters.

The statement from the coalition also said, “We take great measures to prevent these types of incidents while protecting our partnered forces”, and that it’s not aware of any other friendly fire incidents.

“The coalition conducted two strikes aimed at the enemy, which resulted in significant losses among the enemy”, the joint command said in the statement.

Forces from Iraq’s 3rd Division 55th Brigade had been advancing on IS positions near Amriyat al-Fallujah but could not be supported by the Iraqi air force due to bad weather, the command said.

The statement added that “to the best of our knowledge, there have been no previous incidents of friendly fire in Iraq involving the Coalition during the course of Operation Inherent Resolve”.

The initial report from Iraq’s Joint Operations was 10 killed, including a commander, though later in the day Hakim Zamili, Iraq’s Security and Defense Committee chairman, issued a statement claiming at least 30 soldiers were killed, and 20 others wounded in the USA strike.

Fallujah, a mostly Sunni city about 40 miles west of Baghdad, is under the control of the Islamic State.