US A-10 Mistakenly Strikes Iraqi Army Base, Killing and Wounding Troops

A U.S. A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft mistakenly struck the Iraqi army base at Al Habbaniya in western Iraq.

NAYA, a local media outlet, reported this news.

The base is located in Anbar province, a region where operations against Islamic State militants continue. The group seized parts of the area in 2014 before Iraqi forces regained control in 2017, although pockets of resistance remain.

According to NAYA, seven Iraqi soldiers were killed and 13 others wounded in the strike. Iraq’s Defense Ministry strongly condemned the incident, saying the troops were carrying out a humanitarian mission.

Iraqi officials have called for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the region. Authorities in Anbar province declared March 26 a day of mourning.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has not yet commented on the incident.

The cause of the strike remains unclear. It is possible that U.S. forces misidentified Iraqi troops as Islamic State militants.

The incident may also be linked to increased activity by Iran-backed groups, which previously carried out a series of attacks on the U.S. Victory Base.

In those attacks, a helicopter and a radar system were hit, including an HH-60M medical evacuation helicopter and an AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radar.

At the same time, U.S. forces did not attempt to intercept FPV drones, which operated over the base without resistance.

It was also recently reported that, instead of a drug training camp in the village of San Martin in Ecuador, U.S. forces destroyed a dairy farm.