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| FILE - In this April 28, 2016 file photo, Defense Secretary Ash Carter testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. The NATO alliance is considering establishing a rotational ground force in the Baltic states and possibly Poland, reflecting deepening worry about Russian military assertiveness, Carter said Monday, May 2, 2016. |
STUTTGART,
Germany (AP) -- The combat death of a U.S Navy SEAL who was
advising Kurdish forces in Iraq coincides with a gradually deepening
American role in fighting a resilient Islamic State, even as the Iraqis
struggle to muster the military and political strength to defeat the
militants.
Over the course of the nearly
2-year-old campaign, the Pentagon has slowly expanded the American
military role. The strategy, criticized by some as incremental and
inadequate, aims to ensure that the Iraqis do the ground combat,
supported by U.S. airpower, special operations advisers and others.
As
the Iraqis have gained competence and confidence and prepared an
assault in hopes of retaking Mosul, the Pentagon has announced plans to
put more U.S. troops in Iraq and place them closer to the front lines.
In
Defense Secretary Ash Carter's view, that means a greater chance for
success. It also means more risk to U.S. troops, as he acknowledged
Tuesday in announcing the latest death, the third of an American service
member in combat in Iraq since the U.S.-led coalition launched its
campaign against the Islamic State in the summer of 2014.
"It shows you it's a serious fight that we have to wage in Iraq," Carter said.
The
SEAL was identified Tuesday as Charlie Keating IV, 31, who grew up in
Phoenix and attended the Naval Academy before becoming a SEAL based out
of Coronado, California. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said Keating died in an
Islamic State group attack near the city of Irbil.
Seven
months ago, a special operations soldier, 39-year-old Master Sgt.
Joshua L. Wheeler, was killed during a Kurdish-led raid on an Islamic
State prison in northern Iraq. In March, a Marine artilleryman, Staff
Sgt. Louis F. Cardin, 27, was killed when the militants launched a
rocket attack on a newly established U.S. firebase outside Mosul.
White
House spokesman Josh Earnest said President Barack Obama had been
briefed on the incident and extended condolences to Keating's family.
Earnest said the incident was a "vivid reminder" of the dangers facing
U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.
"They are taking grave risks to protect our country. We owe them a deep debt of gratitude," Earnest said.
Keating's
death coincides with diverging trends in Iraq. On one hand, Iraqi
forces trained and advised by Americans have scored significant
battlefield gains in recent months, including the recapture of Ramadi
and other advances against IS-held towns in Anbar province. On the other
hand, political conflict in Baghdad fed by sectarian rivalry is
threatening to derail the entire effort.
Carter
said on Monday that as the Iraqis gain battlefield momentum the
Pentagon will pursue additional ways to support them,. Recently that has
meant adding more U.S. troops to advise Iraqi brigade and battalion
commanders closer to the fight. Inevitably that means the likelihood of
more U.S. combat casualties, even though the White House insists there
are no U.S. "boots on the ground" in Iraq or Syria.
The
risk can be expected to grow if, as planned, the U.S. sends Apache
attack helicopters into battle in support of an Iraqi assault on Mosul
in coming months. The U.S. also has committed to sending more mobile
artillery as part of that effort and to providing up to $415 million in
support of the Kurds in northern Iraq. Obama recently authorized an
increase in the number of troops that can deploy to Iraq to advise and
assist Iraqi forces. The cap was increased last week from 3,870 to
4,087.
The U.S. also has announced it will increase the number of special operations forces in Syria from 50 to 300.
As
described by an Iraqi Kurdish intelligence officer, Lt. Col. Manav
Dosky, Tuesday's Islamic State attack was launched on Teleskof, about 14
miles north of Mosul, just after 6 a.m. The Islamic State broke through
the Kurds' front-line position with a barrage of armored Humvees and
bulldozers, Dosky said, and clashes killed at least three Kurdish
peshmerga fighters. Keating was among Americans advising the peshmerga
during that battle.
Maj. Gen. Jaber Yawer, a
Kurdish peshmerga spokesman, told The Associated Press that the American
was killed by IS sniper fire during an IS attack that also involved a
number of car bombs.
A U.S. defense official,
speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to
discuss the incident publicly, said the SEAL was killed with small arms
fire, suggesting that Islamic State fighters likely came within a few
hundred yards of the U.S. forces.
The Americans were 2 to 3 miles behind that front line before the attack was launched, the official added.
American
forces will continue to stay behind the front lines, the defense
official said, but he acknowledged that the U.S. expects more ground
fighting as the Iraqi and Kurdish militaries, backed by the U.S., push
farther into Islamic State-controlled territory.
