The main US-backed and Kurdish-led force in northeastern Syria said on Friday it lost nine fighters, including a commander, when two helicopters crashed this week in neighboring Iraq.
The group known as the Syrian Democratic Forces said the helicopters crashed during bad weather while en route to the northern Iraqi city of Suleimaniyah on Wednesday night. The nine killed included elite fighters, the group said.
The statement added that Syrian Kurdish fighters were in Iraq as part of an “exchange of expertise” in the fight against the Islamic State militant group. He identified the slain commander as Sherfan Kobani, a cousin of SDF commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi.
The SDF did not investigate the cause of the accident or provide further details. The group asked local authorities in Iraq to hand over the nine bodies so they could be taken home for burial in Syria.
The SDF has been a main force in the fight against the Islamic State militant group in Syria and still carries out operations against the extremists. IS once controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq under the so-called extremist caliphate and still has sleeper cells in the region. Militants often stage attacks, targeting Kurdish-led fighters in Syria, as well as Iraqi forces and civilians in Iraq.
TURKEY CLOSE TO INVASION OF NORTHERN SYRIA AS ISLAMIC STATE TERROR THREAT GROWS
The Syrian Kurdish Force lost 9 fighters in the crash of two Iraqi helicopters this week.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The SDF statement is in stark contrast to a Thursday report by Iraqi Kurdish authorities, which said only one helicopter – a Eurocopter AS350 – had crashed in Iraq’s Dohuk province in the semi-autonomous region of northern Iraq’s Kurdistan.
That report said at least five people were on board, including insurgents from Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. Zagros Hiwa, a PKK spokesman, said on Thursday that the group does not own any helicopters and that the PKK was also investigating the incident.
The PKK has led an insurgency against Turkey since the 1980s and is considered a terrorist group by Ankara, the United States and the European Union. Its militants have established safe havens in northern Iraq and are frequently attacked by Turkey in the region.
The Iraqi government, the US-led coalition and Turkey had all denied ownership of the helicopter.
