Video appears to show battle that left Navy SEAL dead
New video shot by Kurdish peshmerga forces appears to show the heated gun battle that left a Navy SEAL from Arizona dead this week.
Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Charles Keating died Wednesday from an apparent sniper shot to his side, sustained as his quick reaction team rushed into a gunfight with Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants whose early morning attack on a northern Iraqi town took another unit of elite American troops by surprise.
Keating's SEAL quick reaction team was called in to help after about 100 ISIS militants pushed into the ancient Christian town of Tel Asqof (also written Teleskof) early Wednesday. The Pentagon has said a group of U.S. military advisors -- also SEALs, according to the New York Times -- was holding meetings with local Kurdish peshmerga commanders Wednesday when the battle began.
Army Col. Steve Warren told reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday that it was one of the largest offensive actions launched by ISIS in recent months, and involved suicide truck bombs and armored bulldozers used to level defenses set up by the peshmerga.
The peshmerga and the small contingent of SEALs in Tel Asqof quickly became mired in a grueling gun battle with the militants inside the city, and called for help from the quick reaction team. More than two dozen U.S. airstrikes were also carried out in support of the peshmerga and SEALs.
The new video, first obtained Thursday by The Guardian newspaper, appears to show American troops caught in the heat of the battle alongside the peshmerga fighters.
CBS News correspondent Holly Williams reports a convoy of vehicles is seen coming under fire. U.S. troops and peshmerga can be seen, apparently running for cover. What appears to be a U.S. Blackhawk helicopter also comes into view, bearing medical insignia.
As Williams reports, Keating was medevaced off the battlefield by helicopter, but died of his injuries.
Both SEAL teams involved withdrew when they ran out of ammunition, according to the New York Times report, but peshmerga and other local militias were eventually able to mass around the town and force ISIS back out. Warren said as many as 60 ISIS militants died in the battle.
Keating's death -- the third for U.S. forces since President Obama ordered them back to the country to help fight ISIS -- has renewed questions over the administration's insistence that American troops are only operating in the country in an "advise and assist" role.
Confirming the casualty Wednesday before Keating was named, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter referred to it unambiguously as a "combat death."
Williams reports there are about 5,000 U.S. service members in Iraq, mostly classed as military advisers.