A U.S. aircraft appears to have mistakenly carried out an air strike that killed Iraqi security forces near the city of Fallujah, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Saturday.
The Iraqi Minister of Defence Khaled al-Obeidi said earlier that nine soldiers died in the strike on Friday.
The U.S. military is leading an international coalition that is waging an air offensive on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, where the militant group control large swaths of territory.
Mr. Obeidi told a news conference that the strike occurred when coalition air forces were covering the advance of Iraqi ground troops near Fallujah because the Iraqi army helicopters were not able to fly due to the bad weather.
MR. Carter said he spoke with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi by phone on Saturday to express his condolences over the deaths. He said it appeared a U.S. aircraft had carried out the air strike. “That’s the information I have now,” he told reporters while on a trip to the West Asia.
Mr. Carter met with Mr. Abadi during a brief visit to Baghdad to assess the state of the campaign against the Islamic State.
Leaflets in Ramadi
Iraqi military planes dropped leaflets on Sunday on Ramadi, asking residents to leave within 72 hours the western city which is under the control of Islamic State militants, an army spokesman said. “It is an indication that a major military operation to retake the city center will start soon,” one officer said on condition of anonymity.
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