Posted: May 4, 2016 2:44 PM
SEAL Killed in Iraq Was Part of Quick Reaction Force Protecting U.S. Advisers
http://www.seapowermagazine.org/stories/20160504-seal.htmlBy OTTO KREISHER, Special Correspondent
ARLINGTON, Va. —The Navy SEAL killed in Iraq was part of a quick reaction force (QRF) acting to protect a team of U.S. military advisers from a violent and well-coordinated attack by Islamic State fighters, a coalition spokesman said May 4.
The Pentagon identified the latest U.S. casualty in the fighting in Iraq as Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Charles H. Keating IV, 31, who was assigned to a San Diego-based SEAL team.
Keating was killed by direct enemy fire as the QRF of special operations forces was attempting to cover the withdrawal of the small team of American personnel who were on an advise-and-assist visit to Kurdish Peshmerga fighters near the northern Iraqi town of Tal Usquf when the attack penetrated the lightly held defensive lines, Army Col. Steve Warren, spokesman for the Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve, told Pentagon reporters.
The enemy force of at least 125 fighters, with armed trucks, truck bombs and a bulldozer sliced through the Peshmerga defenses in an early morning assault and threatened the U.S. advisers, who were about three miles behind the “forward line of troops,” Warren said in a video briefing from Baghdad.
“The forward line of troops is not a solid line. … It’s just check points, observation posts. The enemy was able to assemble enough forces, car bombs, truck bombs, and were able to punch through,” he said.
The attack came “while our advise-and-assist force just happened to be in the region” meeting with the Peshmerga.
After the Islamic State fighters penetrated several miles, “our forces became involved, embroiled in the fight. They called in the quick reaction force and the SEAL was shot,” Warren said.
“The systems we have in place worked,” he said. The QRF “sprang into action,” a medevac helicopter “quickly removed the Soldier from the battlefield” and got him to a U.S.-run medical facility in Irbil, within the so-called golden hour considered vital to saving badly wounded troops. But Keating died of his wounds.
The medevac helicopters were hit by enemy fire, he said.
“This was a large fight. … The largest we’ve seen in some time,” Warren said, speculating that the attack was an attempt by the Islamic State to distract from the fact that it has “suffered a string of defeats recently.”
Warren explained that whenever U.S. personnel are being sent closer to the battle lines to support the Kurdish or Iraqi Arab forces, a QRF is assembled nearby in case the advisers are threatened. Coalition tactical air also is assigned to fly in the area, and those aircraft were able to respond quickly. Then other strike aircraft were sent in.
The combination of ground forces and airstrikes destroyed about 20 of the enemy vehicles and killed at least 50 fighters, he said.
Warren said the QRF responding to the Tal Usquf attack is part of the force protection troops, which make up about half of the about 4,000 total U.S. personnel in Iraq. But, he insisted, “our mission remains to advise and assist, train and equip our allies in Iraq and Syria.”
Keating was the third U.S. fighter killed in Iraq since America’s combat role supposedly ended more than a year ago. An Army special operations Soldier and a Marine artilleryman were killed last month.
