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US Navy SEAL killed by ISIS in Iraq firefight identified
foxnews.com ^ | May 03, 2016 | FoxNews.com

Posted on 05/03/2016 9:32:30 PM PDT by Trumpinator

The 31-year-old Keating attended the Naval Academy before becoming a Navy Seal based out of Coronado, California

Keating was the grandson of Charles Keating, Jr., the Arizona financier at the center of the 1989 savings and loan scandal, which led to five U.S. Senators being accused of corruption. The senators allegedly involved were dubbed 'The Keating Five.'

Keating was advising Peshmerga forces but was less than 2 miles behind the front lines in the town of Tel Askuf, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said in a statement. A defense official told Fox News the he was killed by small arms fire, likely from an AK-47 rifle.

"The Peshmerga were trying to hold the line, but Navy SEALS – at least 20 – came in and pounded the s--- out of ISIS," military trainer Matthew VanDyke told Fox News, saying that "scores" of Islamic State militants died. VanDyke and three U.S. veterans were training Assyrian Christian forces battling ISIS in the region.

"ISIS kept sending in suicide bombers, SEALs pounded them and the [U.S.] airstrikes did a lot to help. Bullets flying everywhere, machine gun fire from ISIS, really intense firefight," VanDyke added. He said three Christian fighters and several Peshmerga were also hurt.

Navy SEALs joined the fight roughly an hour after it started, "heroically" beating back ISIS, according to VanDyke. He said the SEALs kept fighting until ammunition ran low.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Syria; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: assyrianchristian; california; charleskeating; charleskeatingjr; coronado; iraq; isis; keating; navyseal; navyseals; peshmerga
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God bless this brave American.

May I ask why no air cover? Why no Warthog overhead?

1 posted on 05/03/2016 9:32:30 PM PDT by Trumpinator
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To: Trumpinator

bullets flying everywhere, machine gun fire from ISIS, really intense firefight...

I would cry like a baby and need new clothes.

Brave men.

i dont know anything about the military, but why DID ISIS even get this close when the dont have ONE plane?

you’re right, where was insane air support. 20 doesn’t sound like a large number.


2 posted on 05/03/2016 9:45:45 PM PDT by dp0622 (The only thing an upper crust conservative hates more than a liberal is a middle class conservative)
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To: dp0622

the 20 i mentioned was from another article referring to bombs or sorties, i forget sorry


3 posted on 05/03/2016 9:46:40 PM PDT by dp0622 (The only thing an upper crust conservative hates more than a liberal is a middle class conservative)
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To: Trumpinator
the SEALs kept fighting until ammunition ran low....Until the ammunition ran low?
4 posted on 05/03/2016 9:53:06 PM PDT by SisterK (its a spiritual war)
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To: Trumpinator

God bless all of these brave men and women that do their part to keep us safe.


5 posted on 05/03/2016 9:54:32 PM PDT by Robert DeLong (u)
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To: SisterK

I know —————— Why are we fighting with one hand behind our backs?


6 posted on 05/03/2016 9:56:11 PM PDT by Trumpinator ("Are you Batman?" the boy asked. "I am Batman," Trump said. youtube.com/watch?v=HZA9k7WAuiY)
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To: Trumpinator

Rest in Peace, Troop.

The nation owes you and your brothers more than it can ever pay.

Only God can cover that check.


7 posted on 05/03/2016 10:00:59 PM PDT by Jack Hammer
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To: Trumpinator

He was from Arizona. It would be a very sad irony if his congressional nomination to Annapolis came from McCain who had his early flirtations with the ‘Syrian rebels.’


8 posted on 05/03/2016 10:03:23 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Qui me amat, amat et canem meum.)
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To: Jack Hammer
In this 2002 photo, Charlie Keating IV, 16, poses for in Phoenix for an upcoming series on the Discovery channel that he took part in. Keating was identified as the Navy SEAL killed on May 3 in Iraq. (Sherrie Buzby/The Arizona Republic via AP)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/us-serviceman-killed-by-enemy-fire-in-northern-iraq/2016/05/03/f325cc2c-2eff-4450-8741-79e1eab2f2ce_story.html

Mortar rounds and artillery began hitting front lines near Teleskof, a largely Christian town, about 4 a.m., according to Kurdish officers and members of the Assyrian Christian militia that hold the ground there.

Its inhabitants, speakers of ancient Aramaic, fled in August 2014 when the town was overrun by Islamic State forces, who burned and desecrated its churches. It was retaken by Kurdish forces the same month, and some residents had since returned.

But after bombarding the area Tuesday, the militants launched a multi-pronged attack on Teleskof about 5:30 a.m. from several directions, using hundreds of fighters, commanders said.

Maj. Gen. Azad Jalil, a peshmerga officer, said Islamic State forces breached Kurdish front lines with more than 10 car bombs, also using bulldozers to push through.

The peshmerga then made a “tactical retreat” to reorganize their forces, he said. Islamic State militants overran the town.

Brig. Gen. Bahnam Aboush, a fighter with the largely Christian militia based in the town and known as the Nineveh Plain Protection Units, said his men tried to hold their ground but were overwhelmed.

“We tried to fight them, but we couldn’t due [to] our limited capabilities,” he said. “We have only some old rifles we bought from our own money.”

He said he was near the attack that mortally wounded the Navy SEAL, when a U.S. military contingent came to assist the struggling militia forces.

“American Special Forces came to rescue us in four vehicles,” he said. “They opened the way for us to retreat, then one of their vehicles was hit.”

The general added that when he entered Teleskof after the assault, he saw the U.S. military vehicle abandoned with one of the doors destroyed by an explosion. He was not certain how the SEAL died.

“I think an RPG shot the car,” he said. “Then maybe a sniper shot the person inside.”

Matthew VanDyke, an American fighting alongside the Nineveh Plains Protection Units, who also was nearby, said the SEAL was hit by a sniper shot. A U.S. military official confirmed that the death was caused by small-arms fire. VanDyke said that about 20 Navy SEALS arrived not long after the town was lost about 6 a.m., traveling a few vehicles behind peshmerga forces in a convoy.

“They went straight into the fight,” he said. “They lined up on the edge of the town, and they were unloading on ISIS.”

The SEALs were “a few vehicles behind” the peshmerga forces as they tried to retake the town, when a car bomb struck the front of the convoy, VanDyke said. “Every time we’d try to advance, they’d send car bombs,” he said. It was during that encounter that the SEAL was killed, he said.

The SEALs kept fighting but ran low on ammunition and pulled out as hundreds of peshmerga reinforcements arrived, VanDyke said. “The SEALS were involved in direct action. That’s for sure.”

In Washington, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said: “Today’s incident is a vivid reminder of the risk our service members are taking, and three of them now have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.” He stressed that the U.S. mission in Iraq “is to support Iraqi forces on the ground that are taking the fight” to the Islamic State and that “Iraqi forces must fight for their own country.”

Earnest said that U.S. troops cannot act “as a substitute” for Iraqi forces.

A U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to comment candidly, said U.S. military leaders were still assessing what happened. F-15 fighter jets hit about 20 Islamic State targets in an effort to repel the attack, the official said.

The defense official said U.S. operational reporting suggests the SEALs already were at the scene of the attack when it began and got “caught up in this,” but he added that that was not yet clear. The SEALs have been working with the peshmerga for months in northern Iraq, he added.

A counteroffensive had retaken the town by late afternoon Tuesday.

“The coalition had the key role in retaking the village,” Jalil said. The Islamic State launched the attack, he said, because it is under pressure south of Mosul near Makhmour, where Iraqi forces, with the help of U.S. artillery and air power, have managed to make inching gains.

“It’s showing how desperate and how broken they are,” he said. “There are now more than 100 dead bodies of them in the village, plus they lost many vehicles,” he said.

Jabbar Yawar, a spokesman for the Kurdish peshmerga, said that a number of Kurdish fighters died in the attack but that he could not disclose how many.

9 posted on 05/03/2016 10:05:34 PM PDT by Trumpinator ("Are you Batman?" the boy asked. "I am Batman," Trump said. youtube.com/watch?v=HZA9k7WAuiY)
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To: Joe 6-pack

He died defending ancient Assyrian Christians on their Holy Easter day. God bless his soul and comfort his family.


10 posted on 05/03/2016 10:06:41 PM PDT by Trumpinator ("Are you Batman?" the boy asked. "I am Batman," Trump said. youtube.com/watch?v=HZA9k7WAuiY)
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To: Trumpinator

RIP.


11 posted on 05/03/2016 10:12:07 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (Resist We Much)
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To: Trumpinator

Interesting


12 posted on 05/03/2016 10:43:19 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: Trumpinator

WHERE WAS THE FREAKING AIR SUPPORT?!


13 posted on 05/03/2016 11:07:26 PM PDT by Talisker (One who commands, must obey.)
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To: Trumpinator

Grandson of McCain’s banking buddy gives his life for his country. I salute him.


14 posted on 05/03/2016 11:31:31 PM PDT by ozzymandus
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To: Robert DeLong

Amen.


15 posted on 05/03/2016 11:44:06 PM PDT by Churchillspirit (9/11/2001 and 9/11/2012: NEVER FORGET.)
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To: Trumpinator
He died defending ancient Assyrian Christians on their Holy Easter day. God bless his soul and comfort his family

Amen.

16 posted on 05/04/2016 12:16:18 AM PDT by agere_contra (Hamas has dug miles of tunnels - but no bomb-shelters.)
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To: Trumpinator

Amen


17 posted on 05/04/2016 1:01:53 AM PDT by Shark24 (.)
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To: Trumpinator

Condolences to family and friends of Charlie Keating. R.I.P., sir.

love


18 posted on 05/04/2016 1:19:05 AM PDT by PGalt
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To: Trumpinator

That carter legacy is still costing lives.. And here we go, Nixon- Carter 2.0. Technically it was Ford, but I remember.


19 posted on 05/04/2016 1:39:34 AM PDT by momincombatboots (nixon.. Carter 2016 (technically Ford) Soldier die in Iraq to this day cleaning up Carter. Mexico?)
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To: SisterK

Where the hell was air support? There should have been F-15s,F-16s, and A-10s pummeling ISIS relentlessly.


20 posted on 05/04/2016 2:42:08 AM PDT by ImNotLying (The Constitution is an instrument for the people to restrain the government...Patrick Henry)
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