Iraqi pilots mistakenly delivered food, water and ammunition to Islamic State militants on a recent mission that was meant to supply
their own service members with the supplies, NBC News reported.
"Some
pilots, instead of dropping these supplies over the area of the Iraqi
army, threw it over the area that is controlled by ISIS fighters,” Hakim
Al-Zamili, a member of the Iraqi parliament and a senior security
official, told NBC. “Those soldiers were in deadly need of these
supplies, but because of the wrong plans of the commanders in the Iraqi
army and lack of experience of the pilots, we in a way or another helped
ISIS fighters to kill our soldiers."
A brigadier-general in
Iraq’s Defense Ministry also confirmed the news to NBC, attributing it
to pilots who were "young and new." The incident reportedly occurred on
Sept. 19.
The Pentagon declined HuffPost's request for comment, referring all questions over to the Iraqi Security Forces.
The
reliability of the Iraqi military has been an issue since President
Barack Obama's announcement that he planned to step up the military
campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
The United
States in June began stepping up support for Iraqi and Kurdish forces
fighting the Islamic State in Iraq. It has been striking targeted sites
in Iraq since early August and began bombing locations in Syria on Sept. 23.
Obama
has said he does not want to put U.S. forces on the ground in a combat
role to fight militants and instead will rely on partners in those
countries. But Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey
recently said that about half of the Iraqi army is incapable
of effectively working with the United States to battle the Islamic
State, while the other half needs help rebuilding with additional
training and equipment.
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