Video footage released by the Guardian newspaper depicts the intense ISIS firefight that killed U.S. Navy Seal Charles Keating IV this week in Iraq.
The video shows American troops engaging in the firefight and taking cover behind a pickup truck. A Kurdish officer that participated in the battle provided the Guardian with the footage, according to the newspaper.
The footage comes despite insistence by the U.S. government that ground troops in Iraq serve an advisory purpose and are not meant to engage in combat. The White House has sent as many as 5,500 troops to the region in an advisory capacity in recent years.
“Our men and women on the ground in Iraq do not have a combat mission,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest, according to the Guardian. “But they do have a dangerous mission to operate in a dangerous country.”
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