Navy SEALs in Iraq ordered back to US for alcohol abuse

ANKARA

U.S. defense officials on Thursday ordered a Navy SEAL platoon in Iraq to return home after an investigation showed they had been consuming alcohol while on deployment.

"Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve [in Iraq] ordered the early redeployment of a SEAL Team platoon to San Diego due to a perceived deterioration of good order and discipline within the team during non-operational periods," said a U.S. Special Operations Command statement.

"The Commander lost confidence in the team's ability to accomplish the mission."

The elite Navy SEALs, reportedly a tight-knit, secretive community, have been rocked by scandals of drug and substance abuse, suicides, and worse, homicides and possible war crime.

Earlier this month, in one of the most controversial cases, a panel of Marine officers in California acquitted a chief Navy SEAL accused by military prosecutors of committing war crimes during his 2017 deployment to Iraq.

Nearly a year after Special Warfare Operator Chief Edward Gallagher was charged with murder, attempted murder, and other war crimes in Mosul, Iraq, including stabbing to death a wounded Daesh prisoner of war, he was released from custody.

The jurors ignored the testimony of a dozen of officers in Gallagher's Alpha Platoon, SEAL Team 7, who said he had shot at least two civilians from a sniper perch, among other crimes.