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| FILE - In this Sept. 30, 2015, file photo Defense Secretary Ash Carter speaks to reporters during a news conference at the Pentagon. Carter says the American soldier killed in the mission that rescued 70 hostages from an Islamic State prison in Iraq was a hero for rushing into a firefight to defend his Kurdish partners, even though the plan called for the Kurds to do the fighting on their own. On Oct. 23, Carter applauded 39-year-old Army Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler of Roland, Oklahoma, who died of his wounds Oct. 22. |
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- The U.S. soldier fatally wounded in a hostage rescue
mission in Iraq heroically inserted himself into a firefight to defend
Kurdish soldiers, even though the plan called for the Kurds to do the
fighting, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Friday.
"This
is someone who saw the team that he was advising and assisting coming
under attack, and he rushed to help them and made it possible for them
to be effective, and in doing that lost his own life," Carter told a
Pentagon news conference.
Carter applauded Army Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler, 39, of Roland, Oklahoma, who died of his wounds Thursday.
The
defense chief gave the most extensive public description yet of what
transpired during the pre-dawn raid on an Islamic State prison compound
near the town of Hawija. About 70 people, including at least 20 members
of the Iraqi security forces, were freed. It was the first time U.S.
troops had become involved in direct ground combat in Iraq since the war
against the Islamic State was launched in August 2014, and Wheeler was
the first U.S. combat death.
Carter said he
expects U.S. forces to be involved in more such raids against Islamic
State targets, describing it as part and parcel of what the Pentagon
calls a "train, advise and assist" mission in support of Iraqi forces.
At one point he said, "It doesn't represent assuming a combat role" -
but later, in noting that it is difficult to see the full picture of
what happened during the Hawija raid, he said: "This is combat. It's
complex."
Carter portrayed Wheeler as a hero and said he would be present when Wheeler's body is returned to the U.S. on Saturday.
"As
the compound was being stormed, the plan was not for the U.S. ...
forces to enter the compound or be involved in the firefight," Carter
said. "However, when a firefight ensued, this American did what I'm very
proud that Americans do in that situation, and he ran to the sound of
the guns and he stood up. All the indications are that it was his
actions and that of one of his teammates that protected those who were
involved in breaching the compound and made the mission a success."
"That
is an inherent risk that we ask people to assume," Carter added.
"Again, it wasn't part of the plan, but it was something that he did,
and I'm immensely proud that he did that."
Carter noted that his understanding of what happened is based on early reports.
After
his remarks at the Pentagon, other U.S. officials said the plan for the
rescue mission had called for the U.S. special operations troops, who
are members of the elite and secretive Delta Force, to stay back from
the prison compound and let the Kurds do the fighting. The Americans
transported the Kurds to the scene aboard five U.S. helicopters.
Carter
said the U.S. and its Kurdish partners collected valuable intelligence
at the scene, including documents and electronics. This, he said, shows
"the great value of raids of this kind, and I expect we'll do more of
these kinds of things."
In explaining his
decision to approve the use of U.S. troops to support the Kurds in their
rescue mission, Carter said there was intelligence indicating that
those inside the prison compound faced mass execution by their Islamic
State captors.
"Their graves had already been
prepared," he said. Asked how he knew this, Carter said: "It happens
that we had seen that beforehand. We were watching this compound" after
Kurdish authorities determined that it held numerous hostages.
"The
graves were right next door to the compound," he said, adding that
although it was impossible to know for certain that their purpose was to
dispose of executed prisoners, "it sure looked like that."
Wheeler
was flown from the scene after suffering his wounds and died after
receiving medical treatment in Irbil in northern Iraq.
He was assigned to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
U.S.
combat troops have rarely, if ever, participated directly in combat
against IS fighters on the ground since the U.S. mission began in 2014.
The U.S. has mostly limited its role to training and advising Iraqi and
Kurdish forces, airdropping humanitarian relief supplies and providing
daily airstrikes in IS-held areas of Iraq and Syria.
