The Pentagon said Monday it had no role in an alleged attack that Iran claims killed two Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps in Tikrit last week.
Iran charged Monday that two of its advisers were killed March 23 by a drone strike as they were assisting Iraqi Security Forces retake the Islamic State-controlled city of Tikrit.
But U.S. airstrikes over the area did not start until March 25, two days later, the Pentagon said Monday.
“Coalition forces initiated airstrikes near Tikrit on March 25, two days after the alleged incident occurred, and no airstrikes were conducted in or near Tikrit on March 23. Additionally, we have no information to corroborate claims that coalition airstrikes killed two [Revolutionary Guard] members,” the Pentagon said Monday.
U.S. airstrikes over Tikrit started after weeks of U.S. forces being left on the sidelines, as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and thousands of Iranian-affiliated Shi’a militias worked with a much smaller force of Iraqi soldiers to fight several hundred Islamic State fighters in Tikrit.
After several days of stalled progress, the government of Iraq and the U.S. agreed upon coalition airpower on the condition that the Iranian-affiliated forces leave the battlefield. That condition was set to avoid the situation of Iran accusing the U.S. of hitting its personnel and risking deeper tensions as the two sides enter the last days of talks to secure a nuclear deal.
The U.S. was conducting surveillance over Tikrit prior to conducting airstrikes, the Pentagon said last week.
As of March 30, the U.S. and coalition have conducted 3,057 airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria: 1,753 in Iraq and 1,304 Syria. Of the 3,057, the U.S. has carried out about two-thirds of them on its own.
Of the coalition participants, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands and Great Britain have supported 518 airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq; and Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have supported 94 airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria.
