US Military: Iraqi Soldiers ’Killed By Friendly Fire’

Local Editor

An air strike by the US-led coalition during an offensive against "ISIS" might have killed Iraqi soldiers, the US military said.

"Initial reports indicate the possibility one of the strikes resulted in the death of Iraqi soldiers," the US military said in a statement.

The statement did not show how many soldiers were killed in the airstrike.

However, a senior Iraqi official told Sputnik news agency that the US strike killed at least 20 soldiers and injured more than 30.

"The 55th brigade [of the Iraqi Army] was hit by the US aviation. More than 20 soldiers were killed and over 30 servicemen were wounded as a result of the airstrike," Hakim al-Zamili, head of the Iraqi Parliament's Security and Defense Committee, told Sputnik.

Iraqi forces had been battling militants in Anbar province.

The air strike during close combat near Fallujah caused casualties on both sides, Iraq's joint operations command said.

Iraqi army units had been advancing on "ISIS" positions near Fallujah but could not be supported by the Iraqi air force due to bad weather, the command said.

Coalition air forces carried out two strikes in response to an Iraqi request for support, it said, enabling Iraqi soldiers to advance rapidly and engage the Takfiri militants in close combat.

"A third coalition strike carried out without taking into account the distance that had been covered resulted in injuries among our forces too," the command said in a statement.

The US military said it was the first reported incident of so-called "friendly fire" during Operation Inherent Resolve, which aims to drive "ISIS" Wahhabi militants out of Anbar province.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team