US denies its drone killed 2 Iranian advisers in Iraq

Tehran says it lost forces in an attack by American military during campaign against the Islamic State

By Nasser Karimi and Vivian Salama 30 March 2015, 4:34 pm

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Iraqi security forces prepare to attack Islamic State extremist positions during clashes in Tikrit, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, on March 28, 2015. (photo credit: AP/Khalid Mohammed)

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iran’s Revolutionary Guards says a US drone strike has killed two of its advisers in Iraq, though the US said Monday it has only struck militants in its campaign against the Islamic State group.

The claim came as negotiators on Monday attempted to reach a deal on Iran’s contested nuclear program, which hard-liners in the Islamic Republic have opposed as giving away too much to the West.

The Guards said on its sepahnews.ir website the strike happened March 23, just after the US-led coalition began airstrikes to support Iraqi forces trying to retake the Islamic State-held city of Tikrit. It identified the dead as Ali Yazdani and Hadi Jafari, saying they were buried Sunday. It called them advisers, without elaborating on whether Iran contacted Iraqi or US forces after the strike.

Iran occasionally reports on the death of its forces in Iraq and Syria, where it is backing embattled President Bashar Assad, but this is the first time Iran has said it has lost forces in an attack by the US in those campaigns.

The US-led coalition began a campaign of airstrikes and reconnaissance missions around Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown, on March 21 in support of large-scale operations to retake it after Iraqi efforts had stalled.

Reached by The Associated Press about the Guards’ claim, the US Embassy in Baghdad said: “The international coalition is aimed at Daesh only,” using an alternate Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

“All airstrikes are carried out at the request of the Iraqi government and in full coordination with the (Iraqi) Ministry of Defense,” the embassy said, without directly addressing the Iranian claim.

The Islamic State group now controls a third of both Iraq and neighboring Syria. The US began airstrikes against the group in August, while Iran has offered advisers and other assistance to Iraq to fight the extremists.

The offensive to retake Tikrit largely has been waged by Iraqi troops and Shiite militias advised by General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Guards’ elite Quds Force. Several Shiite militias announced Thursday that they would boycott the Tikrit operations due to US involvement, but Army General Lloyd Austin, head of US Central Command, told a Senate hearing Thursday that the US agreed to Iraqi government requests to support the operation on the condition that the militias wouldn’t be involved.

On Friday, Iraqi media outlets reported casualties among Iraqi security forces near the University of Tikrit, allegedly from US airstrikes. But the US Embassy in Baghdad denied those claims, saying “no coalition airstrikes took place during the time or in the vicinity of these alleged casualties.”