Besieged troops of the official Iraqi army pinned down by ISIS fighters were holding out for a supplies drop by their own air force, but were disappointed and ultimately slaughtered when the food, water, and ammunition was accidentally dropped on ISIS lines instead.
Many ISIS fighters use exactly the same weapons and equipment as their Iraqi army enemies, because they have captures so much equipment from fleeing government forces in the past. Because of this the ammunition dropped was the of correct calibre, and directly contributed to the death of the pinned down Iraqi soldiers last month.
Hakim Al-Zamili MP, who sits on the Iraqi defence committee said of the incident “Some pilots, instead of dropping these supplies over the area of the Iraqi army, threw it over the area that is controlled by ISIS fighters.
“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”.
The NBC news network quoted an Iraqi Brigadier who blamed the incident on inexperience pilots, when he said they “do not have enough experience … they are all young and new”.
The new Iraqi armed forces, equipped and trained at great expense by the United States and allies has suffered a series of embarrassing retreats and setbacks in recent months, as they have shown little willingness or aptitude to face up to advancing ISIS forces. A deficient officer class has been blamed, and it has been reported that many troops have defected with equipment, weapons and vehicles to ISIS instead of fighting them.
Although an investigation into the air-force incident has been launched, there has been no suggestion that the drop of supplies to ISIS was a deliberate action by a rogue pilot.