Iraqis say mistaken U.S. strike killed friendly fighters

BAGHDAD — Senior Iraqi officers say a coalition airstrike mistakenly hit friendly Iraqi forces and civilians in western Anbar on Saturday, but the U.S.-led coalition said the matter is still under investigation.

The military aircraft mistakenly fired at a gathering of Iraqi tribal fighters allied with the central government and civilians in western Anbar, killing seven and wounding 11 others, according to two senior Iraqi officers.

The officers spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.

The strike occurred after U.S.-backed Iraqi forces arrested an Islamic State group operative in the early hours of Saturday morning, according to accounts from both the coalition and the Iraqi officers.

“During the search and evidence collection the force was attacked by hand grenades from nearby homes which they responded to with fire and then withdrew from the area,” read a coalition statement provided to The Associated Press by email.

“While returning to their base the force noticed an unknown armed formation,” the statement continued, “Coalition air assets responded at 0200 and engaged the unknown group.”

The mistaken strike occurred because “coordination was not at the required level,” said the Ministry of Defense spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, without elaborating.

The Iraqi prime minister’s office also confirmed Saturday that an investigation is underway.

In a Twitter post, U.S.-led coalition spokesman Col. Ryan Dillon said United States air support only comes at the request of or by approval of the Iraqi military.

“NO unilateral coalition operations in Iraq,” Dillon said in the tweet.

Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, long a critic of American military presence in Iraq, said in a statement that the “American occupation proves its tyranny, its arrogance and its blatant aggression against the Iraqi government, its independence and its sovereignty, by indiscriminately and unjustly bombarding Baghdadi district which claimed innocent lives.”

Al-Sadr, who also recently positioned himself as a nationalist who opposes Iranian meddling in Iraq, demanded the “aggressors” be punished.

The Shiite cleric condemned the attack as a “flagrant violation” against the Iraqi government and its independence and sovereignty.

The U.S.-led coalition has closely supported Iraqi military advances against the Islamic State with airstrikes for over three years.

On Friday, the U.S.-led coalition said a total of 831 civilians had been killed in coalition airstrikes by the end of 2017 during the three-year war against the Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria.

Airwars, an independent monitoring group, has said that number is implausible given the intensity of the war, particularly in the Islamic State’s self-declared capitals of Mosul and Raqqa, and that their research has shown that up to 9,210 noncombatants were killed by the end of last year.

Last month, Iraq declared victory over the extremists but continues to fight Islamic State insurgent groups across the country.