Iraqi jet drops water, food, ammunition to ISIS by mistake - VIDEO

09:30 | 06.10.2014
Iraqi jet drops water, food, ammunition to ISIS by mistake - VIDEO

Iraqi jet drops water, food, ammunition to ISIS by mistake - VIDEO

Blundering Iraqi air force pilots gave vital supplies of food, water and ammunition to Islamic State militants instead of their own beleaguered troops.

The aid drops were meant to help Iraqi soldiers desperately fending off jihadist fighters near Saqlawia in the western province of Anbar.Hakim Al-Zamili, an Iraqi MP who is a member of the security and defense committee, said the mistake had effectively allowed ISIS to kill off its besieged soldiers.Because most of the extremist group's weaponry was seized from Iraqi forces during its lightning offensive in June, the extra ammunition would have given its fighters a critical edge in the battle.Al-Zamili told NBC News: '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, who declined to be named, confirmed the incident, which happened on September 19.The officer also put the error down to a lack of experience, saying the pilots are 'all young and new'.An investigation is being carried out to determine the exact cause of the mistake.The error raises further questions about the effectiveness of Iraq's fledgling air force at a time when the U.S.-led coalition will be depending on its military to help push back the insurgency. U.S.-led forces today launched further air strikes on Islamic State fighters who are besieging a Kurdish town near the Syrian border with Turkey, according to Kurdish sources in the town and a monitoring group said.A Reuters correspondent on the Turkish side of the border could hear jets overhead and saw a column of black smoke rising into the sky from the southeast of the town.'Today, American jets hit a village that is 4-5 km (2-3 miles) southeast of Kobani and we heard they destroyed one (Islamic State) tank,' Parwer Mohammed Ali, a translator with the PYD Kurdish group, told Reuters by telephone from Kobani, known as Ain al-Arab in Arabic.Meanwhile, British fighter jets fired on militants west of Baghdad overnight, the Ministry of Defence said Wednesday, in their second strikes in as many days in Iraq.The United States has been carrying out strikes in Iraq against the militant group since July and in Syria since August with the help of Arab allies and Britain. Using mostly night strikes, it aims to damage and destroy the bases and forces of the Al Qaeda offshoot that has captured large areas of both countries.(dailymail.co.uk)Bakudaily.Az

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