Friday, October 23, 2015

Back in Iraq


As it usually does when a mission extends beyond a few months, our "mission" in Irag has creeped up to the level of troop involvement in combat. And the first such incident we find out about also includes the first US death by hostile action.
A U.S. special forces commando was killed in Iraq during a joint U.S.-Kurdish raid that freed about 70 hostages from an Islamic State prison, the Pentagon announced Thursday. He was the first American to die during combat there in almost four years.

The Pentagon and the White House confirmed the death but not some other details that were provided by Kurdish security officials. The United States said 22 of the rescued hostages were Iraqi soldiers and the rest were civilians, with no Americans in the group.

The assault on the Islamic State prison outside the town of Hawija, Iraq, 100 miles north of Baghdad, was the first time since the March 2003 U.S. invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq that American and Kurdish forces have conducted a rescue operation together. It was also the first time that American combat troops have undertaken a ground mission in Iraq since President Barack Obama sent the first of 3,000 troops back there 16 months ago with orders that limited their activities to training, advising and equipping Iraqi soldiers...

Defense Secretary Ash Carter authorized the raid, and “the White House national security team was notified of this,” Cook said.
At last our new Secretary of Defense has been blooded. And it was done at the request of our friends the Kurds. Way to go, guys. I just wonder how many times this has happened without our knowing?

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