ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—The Iraqi military said Friday that 10 of its soldiers were killed by friendly fire from coalition aircraft west of the capital during a bombing raid of Islamic State (ISIS) positions.
The US-led joint operations command said in a statement that the incident took place at 1:00 pm when the Iraqi army requested air support against ISIS positions in Fallujah.
“The coalition conducted two strikes aimed at the enemy, which resulted in significant losses among the enemy,” the joint command said in the statement.
According to the statement the coalition aircraft supported the 3rd division of the Iraqi army’s 55th Brigade in their advance against ISIS militants.
AFP quoted a brigadier general as saying, “The strikes were accidental, not intentional. The forces were occupying positions close to those held by Daesh (IS) in Naimiyah,”
Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad has been a major ISIS stronghold since the group overran the Sunni province of Anbar in May.
Judge Zamli, head of Iraq’s parliamentary defense and security committee called on Prime Minister Haider al Abadi “to investigate the incident,”
Zamli put the number of soldiers killed in the air strike at 20 with more than 30 others injured.
“The air strike occurred shortly after the Iraqi forces had achieved a great victory against ISIS in that area,” he said.
