Questions linger on airstrike that killed local police in Iraq's Anbar
Truth urged on airstrike that killed Iraqi police officers and injured the mayor in Anbar province.
AL-BAGHDADI, Iraq — An airstrike in late January in Iraq’s western Anbar region, nowhere near Islamic State (IS) territory, killed several members of the local security forces, injured the mayor and has left many people demanding answers.
Should they not receive them, underlying tension could impact the balance of loyalty in a town under IS control only for a few weeks in early 2015 and long seen as friendly to the nearby coalition air base.
Al-Baghdadi sits along the snaking Euphrates River, date palms lining its banks, roads curving around collapsed bridges, a wadi running through and the enormous Ain al-Asad air base hosting coalition troops and training down the road.
Men with thick, bushy, black mustaches and large families are ubiquitous here, where the dominant tribe is al-Obeidi. The town’s police chief, who was a member of the tribe and was killed in the Jan. 27 incident, had "about 15 children" and two wives, according to one of his relatives in the town.
