Iraqis hit by strike, diplomat confirms

Carter: Accident a hazard of war

ABOARD THE U. S. S. KEARSARGE — An airstrike that mistakenly killed Iraqi troops Friday was carried out by an American plane, U. S. officials said Saturday. Iraq pledged to punish those responsible.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter called the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, to express his condolences and invite Iraq to participate in an investigation.

Carter did not offer a detailed explanation for the airstrike. But Carter said, “It seemed to be a mistake that involved both sides.”

“These kind of things can happen when you are fighting side by side as we are, on a dynamic battlefield,” Carter told reporters aboard the USS Kearsarge, an amphibious assault ship deployed in the Persian Gulf.

Iraq’s defense minister, Khalid al-Obeidi, told reporters in Baghdad that the

strike killed an officer and nine soldiers. He said Iraq had begun an investigation and that the “wrongdoer would be punished according to Iraqi law.” He did not elaborate.

A U.S. military statement Friday did not say how many Iraqi soldiers may have been killed.

A U.S. official, who asked for anonymity to discuss an episode under investigation, said the plane that carried out the attack was a B-1B bomber, which dropped several bombs as it was supporting Iraqi forces battling Islamic State fighters near Fallujah. At least one of those bombs struck the Iraqi troops.

Bad weather may have been a contributing factor, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. With fog in the area, it may have been difficult for reconnaissance drones or aircraft to keep track of the shifting Iraqi positions. A U.S. official said the Iraqi troops appeared to have been closer to the target area than the Americans had realized.

Carter did not provide details about the airstrike, which the U.S. military headquarters in charge of the war effort in Syria and Iraq said was one of several it conducted Friday against Islamic State targets. The U.S. military statement said the airstrikes came in response to requests and information provided by Iraqi security forces on the ground near Fallujah, which is under Islamic State control, and were done in coordination with Iraqi forces.

There have been few instances of “friendly fire” in Iraq since the U.S.-led campaign against the Islamic State began last year. But the attack raises questions of whether the risk of such episodes might be reduced by deploying teams of air controllers with the Iraqi forces, particularly when Iraqi troops are fighting with the Islamic State in urban areas or at close quarters.

Carter said he told al-Abadi that the United States was investigating and would work with the Iraqis.

Asked whether he was worried the deaths might anger Iraqi citizens who may not be happy with the American and coalition presence in Iraq, Carter said, “I hope Iraqis will understand that this is a reflection of things that happen in combat. But it’s also a reflection of how closely we are working with the government” of Iraq.

He added that during the call, both he and al-Abadi recognized that “things like this can happen in war.”

The Iraqi government is under pressure from parliament to deliver a strong response. The parliamentary Defense and Security Committee said it was demanding a “tough stance” from Iraq’s leadership. Lawmaker Mohammed al-Karbouli said the “repetitive targeting” of Iraqi forces “raises suspicions over the credibility” of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State.

Carter met Saturday with naval commanders on U.S. and French warships in the Persian Gulf, saying that there will be more strikes to come in the battle against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.

Carter visited the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, which is expected to launch airstrikes against the Islamic State soon.

He also talked to American troops on the USS Kearsarge, which has been supporting coalition missions in Iraq and Syria.

Carter’s visit to the Charles de Gaulle underscores France’s increased participation in the fight, in the wake of the Paris attacks last month. Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for the Nov. 13 attacks that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds.

“We are completely aligned with France on the mission of defeating ISIL,” said Carter, using an acronym for the Islamic State. “France’s willingness to do more as we do more, both in the air and on the ground, and here at sea … I was very gratified to see that in action out aboard the Charles de Gaulle.”

France’s only aircraft carrier was conducting 10-15 missions daily for about 10 days from the Mediterranean Sea before moving into the Persian Gulf on Friday. Cmdr. Lionel Delort, French Navy spokesman on the carrier, said the ship will launch airstrikes into Iraq and Syria “in the coming hours or days.”

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said the U.S. is making progress in limiting the ways the Islamic State finances itself, by cutting oil sales and shutting off the terrorist group from the formal banking system.

Bombing raids have destroyed 400 tanker trucks in the past month and a half and are now going after infrastructure around oil refineries controlled by the Islamic State, Lew said in an interview on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS that will air today.

The U.S. and its allies are also “going at cross-border sales, formal and informal, and stopping the flow of money into ISIL-controlled territory,” Lew said, according to a transcript provided by CNN.

Finance ministers of the countries on the United Nations Security Council passed a U. S.- Russian resolution Thursday aimed at dismantling the financial network of the Islamic State and choking off the extremist group’s access to money from oil and looting. A U.N. report estimated that the Islamic State was earning as much as $1.7 million a day from crude oil sales.

The U.N. resolution is “a very, very powerful message to anyone thinking of getting involved in this business or any financial institution thinking of supporting it — you know, that is going to be something we don’t want to do,” U.K. Chancellor of Exchequer George Osborne said in the CNN interview.

While the U.S. and its allies have already shut off the Islamic State from the formal banking sector, the world needs to work together to make sure all sanctions and restrictions are followed, Lew said.

“What we need to do now is be effective — and only the world community together can do that,” he said. “It’s all about execution. We’ve now got to work individually and collectively to make sure that the promises made in the resolution

are kept.”