Pentagon IDs Marines killed in anti-ISIS operation in Iraq

The Pentagon has identified the two Marine Raiders who were killed in a gunfight Sunday while clearing Iraqi mountains of ISIS outposts.

The Marines killed were Gunnery Sgt. Diego D. Pongo, 34, of Simi Valley, Calif., and Capt. Moises A. Navas, 34, of Germantown, Md., the Defense Department said in a statement Tuesday.

Both Pongo and Navas were assigned to 2nd Marine Raider Battalion, Marine Forces Special Operations Command, Camp Lejeune, N.C., according to the statement.

The incident is under investigation, the statement added.

Operation Inherent Resolve announced Monday that two U.S. service members were killed by “enemy forces” during an operation with Iraqi security forces to “eliminate an ISIS terrorist stronghold” in a mountainous area of north central Iraq on Sunday.

They were this year’s first U.S. combat deaths in Iraq, where 5,200 U.S. troops remain to root out remnants of ISIS.

Sunday’s gunfight reportedly happened while the Marines Special Operations team worked with Iraqi counterterrorism forces to clear out a well-defended cave complex of ISIS fighters. The recovery operation for the slain Marines reportedly took six hours and involved hoisting them out after they fell into a crevice.

At a House Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday, U.S. Central Command chief Gen. Frank McKenzie confirmed the six-hour recovery operation, saying the terrain presented difficulties.

“The terrain was vertical, some of the worst terrain in the world,” he said. “There’s no way to do it any faster than we did it. It’s a very tough, difficult tactical situation. The problems we encountered were not problems of resources. Sometimes you fight in hard ground. Sometimes someone falls a long way and has to be recovered. What you don’t want to do is get somebody else killed in that recovery.”

Updated at 12:24 p.m.