Slain SEAL on mission to aid military advisers

In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Charles Keating IV, 31, of San Diego is shown.
In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Charles Keating IV, 31, of San Diego is shown.

WASHINGTON -- A Navy SEAL killed during a firefight in Iraq was part of a quick reaction force that moved in to rescue U.S. military advisers from an Islamic State attack, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

The attack triggered a coalition air response that destroyed equipment, buildings and killed up to 60 militants.

Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Charles Keating was shot and killed when he and other special operations forces went to the rescue of the U.S. forces that got caught in a gunbattle involving more than 100 Islamic State extremist fighters, Army Col. Steve Warren said.

The small team of U.S. advisers went to Teleskof, about 14 miles north of Mosul, to meet with Kurdish peshmerga forces. Warren said that Islamic State fighters engaged in a large, complex attack on the peshmerga there about 7:30 a.m., with armored Humvees and bulldozers, and broke through the front lines.

It was, he said, one of the largest attacks that the Islamic State has carried out in recent months, and it came after several recent defeats of the militants in the region.

Warren, a U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, told Pentagon reporters that the U.S. advisers were less than 2 miles behind the front lines, and called for help just before 8 a.m. The quick reaction force went in to get the U.S. forces out.

Warren said Keating was hit about 9:30 a.m. and was evacuated for medical treatment, but "his wound was not survivable."

He said Keating was taken to a medical facility in Irbil and that both of the Black Hawk medical evacuation helicopters were hit by small-arms fire.

According to Warren, even as the U.S. advisers were being rescued from the fight, coalition aircraft -- including F-15 and F-16 fighter jets, B-52 bombers, A-10 close air support aircraft and drones -- responded and launched airstrikes on more than 30 locations, destroying truck bombs, vehicles and bulldozers and killing close to 60 enemy fighters. He said the peshmerga have regained control of the town.

Warren wouldn't release details about the quick-reaction force, other than to note that often such teams are set up and put on standby when U.S. forces go out on missions in dangerous areas. The team of commandos is usually stationed relatively close by so that it can respond quickly.

Keating, 31, is the third U.S. service member to be killed in combat in Iraq since U.S. forces returned there in mid-2014 to help the Iraqi government regain the wide swaths of territory captured by the Islamic State.

His death came as Defense Secretary Ashton Carter was meeting in Germany with defense leaders from 11 coalition countries, and agreed to accelerate the fight against the Islamic State.

At the meeting, Carter said he regretted Keating's death but stressed that combat risks in Iraq are unavoidable.

Keating, originally from Phoenix, had wanted to be a Navy SEAL from a young age and even put a SEAL poster on his bedroom wall at age 8 or 9, his mother said in a telephone interview.

"He was our golden boy and he had a million-dollar smile. And he had the best luck in the world, and he always made it through, so that's why this is so shocking," Krista Joseph said.

A 2004 graduate of Phoenix's Arcadia High School, Charlie Keating was city and regional champion in the 1,600-meter run as a sophomore, junior and senior.

Rob Reniewicki, Keating's former high school track coach, said he had kept in touch with Keating through Facebook and that Keating was planning to get married in November.

"He was a tremendous athlete, a tremendous person. I'm devastated," Reniewicki told Phoenix TV station KTVK.

Keating ran track and cross country from 2004-06 at Indiana University, where his father was a three-time All-America swimmer from 1974-77 and finished fifth in the breaststroke at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.

Keating was a member of the 2004-05 Hoosiers team that was Big Ten Conference runner-up in both the indoor and outdoor seasons. He competed in the mile run.

Information for this article was contributed by Ryan Van Velzer and Paul Davenport of The Associated Press.

A Section on 05/05/2016

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