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Canadian special forces involved in large battle with ISIS

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 Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 Hornet breaks away after refueling with a KC-135 Stratotanker over Iraq. (HO-U.S. Air Force Photo by Staff Sgt. Perry Aston/Canadian Press)

Canadian Special Operations Forces were involved in a pitched battle against ISIS militants in northern Iraq alongside their Kurdish trainees, returning fire from the ground as two Canadian fighter jets pounded the militants from the air.

The 17-hour battle was “the largest event that the Canadian Armed Forces training up north have been involved in,” Canadian Armed Forces Maj.-Gen. Charles Lamarre told reporters at a hastily arranged press conference in Ottawa Thursday evening.

The three-prong offensive by ISIS militants in a wide area east of Mosul and northwest of Kurdish capital Irbil began around 4 p.m. local time on Wednesday, and involved suicide bombs, ground troops and artillery.

“Although the attackers were able briefly to penetrate Kurdish Security Forces (KSF) defensive positions, our forces played a role in advising and assisting the KSF to successfully launch a counter attack and re-establish defensive lines,” Defence Minister Harjit S. Sajjan said in a written statement.

 An officer from the coalition forces gives advice to Kurdish Peshmerga forces during a training session by coalition forces on how to fight street battles and defend the front lines on the outskirts of Dohuk province, June 15, 2015.
An officer from the coalition forces gives advice to Kurdish Peshmerga forces during a training session by coalition forces on how to fight street battles and defend the front lines on the outskirts of Dohuk province, June 15, 2015. © Azad Lashkari / Reuters

The Canadian commandos laid down supporting fire to back up their Kurdish trainees as they undertook a counter-offensive Thursday.

“They came under effective fire and our guys were close enough and able to respond with fire on to those ISIL positions,” said Lamarre.

He would not say how many of the 69 Special Operations Forces soldiers were involved in the firefight or what type of weapons were used.

Lamarre also confirmed that two Canadian CF-18s fighter jets conducted air strikes near the ISIS-controlled city of Mosul, the country’s second largest city.

There were no Canadian casualties, but Kurdish security forces sustained a number of losses, said Lamarre.

Intelligence failure?

The surprise and highly coordinated offensive raised questions about the coalition’s intelligence gathering ability in Iraq and Syria.

Reporters asked Lamarre why the U.S.-led coalition was not able to see it coming despite all of the high-tech intelligence gathering tools — including a Canadian CP-140 Aurora spy plane — at its disposal.

“I don’t have all of the details yet of how this event took place in terms of the intelligence aspects,” Lamarre said. “But there was sufficient warning for them to be able to react to it. That said, however, there was an element of surprise ISIL was able to bring to it.”

Related stories:

Canada’s Iraq conundrum 

Canada to bolster troops training Iraqi forces


‘We need to fight smarter,’ says Canada’s ‘bad-ass’ defence minister

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 Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan is welcomed by Karim Sinjari, Interior Minister of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), not pictured, upon his arrival to Irbil, northern Iraq, Sunday, Dec. 20, 2015.

Canada and its allies need a much better analysis of the political situation in the world’s hotspots and have to learn from previous mistakes to prevent the emergence of radical organizations that take advantage of power vacuums left by the Western-backed toppling of dictators, said Canada’s defence minister Monday.

Speaking to reporters on the phone from Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, Harjit Sajjan said recent events in Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and Iraq showed the coalition needs to get better at looking at emerging threats before they get to a level “where we have to put coalitions together to get involved in the fight.”

“We need to start looking at the early signs of potential grievances that could lead to radical organizations taking advantage of disenfranchised populations and start their recruitment,” Sajjan told reporters.

Getting first-hand experience
 A Canadian Armed Forces CF-18 Fighter jet from 409 Squadron taxis after landing, in Kuwait, on October 28, 2014. Two CF-18s struck a fighting position belonging to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, northwest of occupied Mosul, the embattled country’s second-largest city on Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015.
A Canadian Armed Forces CF-18 Fighter jet from 409 Squadron taxis after landing, in Kuwait, on October 28, 2014. Two CF-18s struck a fighting position belonging to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, northwest of occupied Mosul, the embattled country’s second-largest city on Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015. © PC/DND

Sajjan said the aim of his visit to Iraq was to see the Canadian troops stationed in the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq and get a first-hand experience and a better understanding of the situation on the ground.

Sajjan, a former police officer and a military commander with extensive experience in Afghanistan, toured the front lines in the war against Islamic State militants on Monday and met with Kurdish military commanders and Canadian special forces who repelled last week’s major offensive west of Irbil.

He said the issue of the Liberal government’s plan to withdraw Canada’s six CF-18 fighter jets did not come up in conversations with either Iraqi officials in Baghdad or the Kurds.

Instead, Sajjan said they discussed how Canada can refocus its military commitment with a beefed up training mission. He said Canada has some military capabilities such as integrated targeting systems that could be very useful in the fight against Islamic State militants.

Getting the big picture
 Fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) stand guard at a checkpoint in the northern Iraq city of Mosul, June 11, 2014.
Fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) stand guard at a checkpoint in the northern Iraq city of Mosul, June 11, 2014. © STRINGER Iraq / Reuters

But before Canada commits more resources to the fight, there needs be a much better understanding and analysis of not just country-based issues, but regional based issues and how they interlink with other problems, Sajjan said.

“It’s like a big organized crime group with tentacles and reach,” Sajjan said. “They are not looking at jurisdictions just like any terrorist organization. We need to be constantly ready and looking at when do something are we taking it out or are we displacing it? And if we are going to displace it, we need to be ready where they are going to be.”

In addition, Western countries must be much better prepared when backing insurgencies or popular movements to remove regional strongmen and dictators, Sajjan said.

“Are we creating a void? Who is going to fill that void? What’s going to fill that void? What are the potential things,” Sajjan said. “We need to be constantly doing that type of analysis.”

And once policy makers have a better understanding of the social fabric that includes the radical groups, the political situation, economic and organized crime and how they are all linked together, then they can figure out what type of capabilities to bring to the table, Sajjan said.

Ounce of prevention

“We need the wide spectrum of counter-terrorism measures all the way down to what development does,” Sajjan said.

Regrettably, talking about development is sometimes being equated with being soft on terrorism, he said.

“Well, sometime that approach of keeping people’s lives better and young kids working, especially in Africa, is actually preventing radicalization,” Sajjan said.

Policy makers need to get beyond the current threats to a deeper analysis, to prevent problems from happening, he said.

“I’d rather make sure that things are good than having to get things wrong politically where we have to put our men and women in the harm’s way in the conflict zones,” Sajjan said. “At the end of the day what we really need to do, we need to fight smarter.”

Sajjan said Islamic State expansion in Iraq offers a very good illustration of how an earlier political intervention to address some of the grievances of the country’s Sunni Arab minority might have brought a different outcome.

“Those grievances because they were left unaddressed , the radical organization came and took advantage of it and their ranks grew in size,” Sajjan said. “These are the same reoccurrences, we saw the patterns in Afghanistan, you see it in places like Africa, the indicators are literally right in front of us and sometimes a political solution early on, putting pressure can prevent these things from happening.”

It’s paramount that the coalition fighting ISIS doesn’t create a political situation that is conducive to the creation of another generation of Al-Qaeda,  Sajjan said.

“And by the way, while we do this, we can never forget as I mentioned earlier, the reaches into other parts of the region,” he said. “So while we look at the current one, we need to be ready for preventing any other future conflicts.”

Canadian fighter jets strike targets in Syria and Iraq

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 Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 Hornets depart after refueling with a KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to the 340th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron, October 30, 2014, over Iraq.Canadian fighter jets taking part in the air campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have had a busy start to 2016.

While federal politicians in Ottawa squabble over Canada’s role in the fight against ISIS militants, Canadian fighter jets in the region have been busy pounding the group’s positions in Syria and Iraq.

Just in the last week of January, Canadian CF-18 Hornet fighter jets carried out four strikes, targeting ISIS fighters and positions in Fallujah and Ramadi in western Iraq, and an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) production factory east of the ancient city of Palmyra, in Syria, according to the National Defence website tracking Canadian operations.

The strike near Palmyra was only the fifth time Canadian jets had struck ISIS targets in Syria since the Canadian parliament authorised the military to expand its air campaign to Syria last March.

Chris Woods, head of Airwars, a UK-based group of investigative journalists and volunteers that tracks the number of civilian casualties in Syria and Iraq, said he was not aware of any reports of civilian casualties caused by the Canadian airstrikes.

Beginning from October 2014 when the first of six Canadian fighter jets were deployed in the region, the Canadian CF-18s have conducted 1338 sorties, resulting in 218 airstrikes.

The newly elected government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has vowed to pull the Canadian fighter jets from the region, promising instead to concentrate Canada’s limited military resources on training Iraqi security forces and Kurdish peshmerga forces in northern Iraq to take on ISIS fighters on the ground.

The move by the Liberal government to withdraw the fighter jets has drawn fire from the opposition Conservatives who authorised the mission in the Middle East when they were in power.

The current mandate of Canadian forces in the region expires in March.

New mission

However, it’s not clear yet what form the new training mission will take. There are already 69 elite Canadian special forces soldiers training Kurdish forces in northern Iraq.

It’s also not clear whether Canada will maintain its other air assets in the area. In addition to the six fighter jets Canada has also deployed one CC-150T Polaris aerial refueller to support coalition air operations and two CP-140M Aurora surveillance aircraft to contribute to coalition intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.

“The goal for Canada is to redeploy our efforts in a way that will be optimal, very effective, more effective than today in some ways, in order to ensure that we will be strong in our fight against … the so-called Islamic State,” said Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion during a joint press conference with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Quebec City on Friday.

Canada to cease air strikes against ISIS by Feb. 22

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 Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, left to right, International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion attend a news conference in Ottawa on Monday, Feb. 8, 2016.

Canada will stop its participation in coalition airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) no later than Feb. 22, while it triples the number of special forces deployed to train Iraqi Kurdish forces on the ground for the next two years, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday.

“It is important to understand that while airstrike operations can be very useful to achieve short-term military and territorial gains, they do not on their own achieve long-term stability for local communities,” Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa.

“Canadians learned this lesson first-hand during a very difficult decade in Afghanistan, where our Forces became expert military trainers renowned around the world.”

While Canada will pull its six CF-18 Hornet fighter jets from the bombing mission, it will keep its aircrew and support personnel for one CC-150 Polaris aerial refuelling aircraft and up to two CP-140 Aurora aerial surveillance aircraft, said Trudeau.

The number of elite Canadian commandos helping train Kurdish peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq will jump from 69 to 230, bringing the total of Canadian soldiers deployed in the region to about 830.

“We will be supporting and empowering local forces to take their fight directly to ISIL so that kilometre by kilometre they can reclaim their homes, their land and their future,” Trudeau said, using an alternate name to refer to ISIS.

‘Comprehensive approach’

Flanked by Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion, National Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and the Minister of International Development Marie-Claude Bibeau, Trudeau said the government is taking a comprehensive approach to the crisis in Iraq and Syria.

Canada will provide $840 million in humanitarian assistance over three years, said Trudeau.

Ottawa has also allocated $270 million over three years to “build local capacity” in Jordan and Lebanon that are hosting over two million Syrian refugees.

Canada also plans to beef up its diplomatic presence in Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq to play a more prominent role in finding a diplomatic solution to the crisis, said Trudeau.

Trudeau committed to staying in Iraq for at least two years, and promised to put the new policy to a debate in Parliament when the House of Commons resumes next week and a subsequent vote.

“ISIL would like us to see them as a credible threat to our way of life and to our civilization,” Trudeau said, calling for a level-headed debate in Parliament. “We know Canada is stronger, much stronger than the threat posed by a murderous gang of thugs who are terrorising some of the most vulnerable people on Earth.”

‘A step backwards for Canada’
 Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 Hornets depart after refueling with a KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to the 340th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron, October 30, 2014, over Iraq.Canadian fighter jets taking part in the air campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have had a busy start to 2016.
Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 Hornets depart after refueling with a KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to the 340th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron, October 30, 2014, over Iraq.Canadian fighter jets taking part in the air campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have had a busy start to 2016. © PC/Staff Sgt. Perry Aston

Rona Ambrose, Leader of the Official Opposition and Interim Leader of the Conservative Party, denounced the Liberal plan to withdraw the fighter jets as “a step backwards for Canada.”

The Liberals have failed to explain to Canadians why they believe it is a good idea to step back from the bombing mission in Iraq and Syria, Ambrose said.

“Today’s announcements on training and humanitarian assistance are only designed to distract Canadians from the withdrawal of our CF-18s,” she said. “The only reason for this decision that anyone can point to is that it was done for political purposes in the heat of an election campaign. Canadians certainly deserve better.”

Instead of playing a military combat role Canada should focus on stopping the flow of arms, funds and foreign fighters, including improving anti-radicalization efforts at home, NDP Foreign Affairs Critic Hélène Laverdière said in a statement.

“We are concerned that the Liberal government has chosen to place Canadian Forces personnel deeper into an open-ended combat military mission in Iraq – a mission that fails to even define what success would look like,” Laverdière said. “The Trudeau Liberals promised to end the Conservative government’s mission and said we need a clearer line between combat and non-combat. Today’s announcement actually blurs these lines even more.”

Trudeau said he has discussed his plan in conversations with other coalition leaders, including U.S. President Barak Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Francois Hollande and Iraq Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi, who thanked him for Canada’s new role.

The prime minister’s announcement comes as Sajjan prepares to leave for Brussels, where he will meet with NATO defence ministers on Feb. 10-11.

The previous Conservative government committed Canada to the coalition airstrikes until March, but the new Liberal government was elected on a pledge to pull Canada’s six CF-18 fighter jets out of the bombing mission.

A more dangerous mission

Speaking at a technical briefing following Trudeau’s press conference, Canada’s top soldier, Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Jonathan Vance, admitted that the military’s new mission to assist, advise and equip Kurdish forces increases the risks for Canadian special forces stationed in Iraq.

“We will be involved in engagements as we defend ourselves or those partners who we are working with,” Gen. Vance said, insisting that in his view it was still a non-combat mission. “We are not the principal combatants, we’re supporting those who are; we will be in proximity to the danger they are in proximity; we will be in a region that is contested and we will potentially suffer the challenges that such a region offers.”

In addition to training the Kurdish forces, Canada will also be arming them with light weapons such as assault rifles, machine guns and light mortars, as well as optical systems for these weapons and ammunition, Gen. Vance said.

Canada’s new mission in Iraq increases risks for soldiers: experts

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 Royal Canadian Air Force members of Air Task Force-Iraq and several members of the coalition participate in the SHAMAL SERIALS, a combat search and rescue exercise held for personnel of the Middle East Stabilization Force, currently conducting operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). (Photo: Op Impact, DND)

The Liberal government’s decision to stop the bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria and focus on training Kurdish forces in Northern Iraq increases the risks for Canadian special forces stationed there, say Canadian defence experts.

Under the new plan, the number of elite Canadian commandos helping train Kurdish peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq will jump from 69 to about 230, bringing the total of Canadian soldiers deployed in the region to about 830.

“We will be involved in engagements as we defend ourselves or those partners who we are working with,” said Canada’s top soldier, Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Jonathan Vance, speaking at a technical briefing following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s press conference on Monday.

“We are not the principal combatants, we’re supporting those who are; we will be in proximity to the danger they are in proximity; we will be in a region that is contested and we will potentially suffer the challenges that such a region offers.”

Constant danger

Retired Lt.-Col. Steve Day, former commander of Canada’s elite anti-terrorism unit Joint Task Force 2 (JTF2) and president of Reticle Ventures, a security consultancy and training company, said Canadian special forces will be in a “very-very fluid battle space.”

(click to listen to the interview with Steve Day)

Listen

“The danger is 360 degrees, 365 days of the year and you need to have the best trained, best equipped and best led Canadians on the ground to be able to be able to work in a very-very volatile, very complex environment,” Day said.

The environment that the Canadian soldiers in Iraq are facing is very much alike to what they faced in Afghanistan, Day said.

“When you’ve got an active insurgency going on in the host nation, there is nothing stopping a suicide bomber from walking up to a trainer and a trainee and wreaking havoc,” Day said. “It’s dangerous from that perspective. You’ve got a host nation that’s got an internal security challenge and that internal security challenge is around you all the time.”

Then of course there is the danger from the kind of training Canadian soldiers will be providing to the Kurdish forces.

Canadian special forces will continue basic level training, which they have already been doing since the end of 2014, he said.

Frontline training
 Royal Canadian Air Force members of Air Task Force-Iraq and several members of the coalition participate in the SHAMAL SERIALS, a combat search and rescue exercise held for personnel of the Middle East Stabilization. Kuwait. 16 March 2015.
Royal Canadian Air Force members of Air Task Force-Iraq and several members of the coalition participate in the SHAMAL SERIALS, a combat search and rescue exercise held for personnel of the Middle East Stabilization. Kuwait. 16 March 2015. © Canadian Armed Forces

But with additional trainers on the ground they will be able to move beyond just basic training to specialized training and more advanced training, Day said.

At the end of his briefing to reporters Gen. Vance admitted that Canadian soldiers will also be teaching their Kurdish protégés how to mark enemy targets for coalition strikes.

The very nature of that kind of training will require Canadian soldiers to be on the frontlines within the visual range of their targets, which means they themselves will be potentially vulnerable to all the dangers facing frontline soldiers, whether the Canadians actively engage in combat or not.

Given those dangers, he would have like to see more support for the Canadian soldiers on the ground, Day said.

“I would love to see a helicopter element that’s providing support to our men and women, I would like to have seen the CF-18s stay there,” Day said. “I must tell you having been (in a situation like that), there is nothing better than be able to pick up a radio and talk to a brother or sister from your own country when you’re in trouble somewhere.”

The Liberal announcement on the refocusing of the mission has left him with many unanswered questions, Day said.

“What is the endgame that we are trying to work towards? What are the political objectives? And what does success look like?” Day said.  “We talk about two or three years where the government is currently committed. What do we expect to achieve in two to three years.”

Is Canada training a separatist army in Iraq?

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 Members of the Kurdish peshmerga forces gather in the town of Sinjar, Iraq November 13, 2015.

In the millennia-old history of Kurds, there has never been a time when this ancient people of the Middle East were so tantalisingly close to statehood.

And if in the next few years, the Kurds do manage to bridge their political, tribal, religious and cultural differences, and declare statehood in their ancient homeland in northern Iraq, they’ll owe a small debt of gratitude to Canada.

That’s because whether Ottawa likes it or not, Canada’s elite special forces have been training the nucleus of what is likely to become the army of independent Kurdistan.

And with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s newly announced plan to triple the number of Canadian special forces advisers and to equip the Kurdish peshmerga fighters with light arms, the future Kurdish army will not only be one of the best fighting forces in the region but will also likely sport Canadian-made assault rifles, machine guns and light mortars.

The irony, of course, is that neither Canada nor its Western allies want the Kurds to secede from Iraq, says Michael Bell, a four-time Canadian ambassador in the Middle East and Paul Martin (Sr.) Senior Scholar in International Diplomacy at University of Windsor.

But the resolution of the broader problem of Iraqi unity has taken second place to the urgent need to confront the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), says Bell.

Effective ground force
 A member of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces holds his weapon while taking position in the town of Sinjar, Iraq November 12, 2015.
A member of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces holds his weapon while taking position in the town of Sinjar, Iraq November 12, 2015. © STRINGER Iraq / Reuters

The Kurds have proven to be the most effective ground force confronting ISIS in Iraq and in Syria, and it makes sense to support them in the campaign against ISIS, says Bell.

The Western strategy of dealing with ISIS is to use the Kurds as a ground fighting force while the U.S.-led alliance uses its overwhelming air power to debilitate ISIS to a point when it will be difficult for its supporters to equate it with the Islamic caliphate in the heart of the Middle East that ISIS leadership has been pushing for.

In Western calculations, ISIS with its drive to carve out a Sunni Islamist proto-state from Iraq and Syria poses a much greater threat than any eventual Kurdish independent state in northern Iraq.

The allies would prefer a united Iraq with a confederated system that allows the Kurds to exist in a quasi-independent state without actually declaring de jure independence. The problem is the Sunni population of Iraq is alienated from the Shia-dominated government in Baghdad, says Bell.

The government in Baghdad represents the interests of the Shia majority and Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi is in a very weak position, says Bell. Al-Abadi is under tremendous pressure from Iranians who control what the government does, he says.

“What Iran doesn’t want, won’t happen,” Bell says.

With the ongoing sectarian tensions between Sunnis and Shias throughout the Middle East their peaceful coexistence in unified Iraq will be very difficult if not impossible.

Even with ISIS severely degraded, Iraq faces the possibility of breaking up into three entities: a Sunni part, a Shia part and a Kurdish state.

Eye on Mosul
 An Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga stands guard near the Mosul Dam in northern Iraq, February 3, 2016.
An Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga stands guard near the Mosul Dam in northern Iraq, February 3, 2016. ©  Azad Lashkari / Reuters

Moreover, even the operation to retake Mosul from ISIS could accelerate a Kurdish drive for independence.

The Kurds have for years yearned for control of Iraq’s second-largest city, which they claim is part of the Kurdish homeland along with the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

They managed to get a foothold in Kirkuk and its vast oil fields following the spectacular collapse of Iraqi forces in the face of a rapid advance by ISIS militants in June of 2014. Now, they share an uneasy cohabitation with Shia militias sent to the city by the government in Baghdad to prevent it from falling under full Kurdish control.

Despite their successful operation to recapture Ramadi, Iraqi security forces will need the help of Kurdish peshmerga fighters if they ever hope to recapture Mosul, a city ten times larger than Ramadi.

Leaked U.S. plans to recapture Mosul last year suggested that a force of at least 25,000 fighters strong was needed to take the city of 1.5 million inhabitants. The plans called for five Iraqi army brigades and three Kurdish brigades to work together to liberate the city.

About 65 per cent of Mosul’s population are Sunni Arabs, and the city has significant Turkoman and Kurdish minorities, especially in its eastern quarters.

Mosul’s multicultural mosaic, just like that of Kirkuk, is rife for interethnic conflict. Neither Mosul’s Arabs nor Turkomans are likely to be very welcoming of Kurdish forces. Even if the attacking forces manage to capture Mosul in one swift blow, the city runs the risk of being turned into Beirut or Tripoli-like fiefdoms controlled by various factions, with simmering tensions rippling through the rest of the fragile relationship between Baghdad and Kurdish leadership in Irbil.

Heavy losses and an inconclusive operation to recapture Mosul from ISIS could also spur Kurdish President Masoud Barzani to seek formal independence to deflect public attention from the growing economic crisis to due to falling oil prices and internal political challenges.

Training ‘separatist army’
 A member of Air Task Force - Iraq Auxiliary Security Force (ASF) takes aim at a shooting range in Camp Patrice Vincent, Kuwait, during Operation IMPACT. (Photo: OP IMPACT, DND)
A member of Air Task Force – Iraq Auxiliary Security Force (ASF) takes aim at a shooting range in Camp Patrice Vincent, Kuwait, during Operation IMPACT. © OP IMPACT, DND

In any case, it seems Canadian special forces soldiers are going to play a key role in training Kurdish fighters for the operation in Mosul, according to U.S. military officials.

Speaking to reporters from Brussels on Thursday, Canada’s Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland commended Canada for being “very forward looking” in its approach to tripling the number of Canadian special forces trainers in northern Iraq and expanding its intelligence capabilities.

MacFarland told him those expanded intelligence capabilities were what he needed to refine his plan to retake Mosul from ISIS, as well as having the Canadian trainers conduct training tailored for the operation, Sajjan said.

“Ther is an irony in that we and other are investing in the peshmerga and are actually aiding a separatist army,” says Bell. “But at this point, there is no alternative to that.”

Bell says the United States and its allies including Canada are putting tremendous diplomatic pressure on Barzani to persuade him not pursue full independence, that the Kurds will be better off with very wide autonomy inside a unified Iraq without the trappings of an independent state.

“Canada is committed to the unity and territorial integrity of the Republic of Iraq,” Tania Assaly, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada, said in a statement. “This position is well known to our Iraqi interlocutors, including in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region.”

Canadian officials are in close contact with the Iraqi authorities on the implementation of Ottawa’s new strategy, which will be carried out with the full consent of the Iraqi government, Assaly said. 

For now, it appears Iraqi officials in Baghdad are happy with Canada’s role, but it remains to be seen whether their calculations change, once the threat posed by ISIS subsides.

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Learning lessons from Yugoslav tribunal

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 In this image taken from video Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic listens to the verdict at the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, The Netherlands Thursday March 24, 2016. Karadzic was convicted of genocide and nine other charges Thursday at a U.N. court, and sentenced to 40 years in prison. (ICTY, Pool via AP)

The conviction of the former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic for crimes against humanity offers important lessons for a peace process in Syria and Iraq, says a Canadian international law expert.

“International law and human rights are meaningless if we allow political leaders to commit mass murder with impunity,” said Payam Akhavan, professor of international law at McGill University and a former UN prosecutor at The Hague.

In places like Syria there is no serious move to bring political leaders such as President Bashar Al-Assad to justice for the killing of an estimated 450,000 people, mostly civilians, Akhavan said in a phone interview from the United Kingdom.

“Although we are preoccupied with the social media spectacle of ISIS with horrific beheadings and burning of people alive, which has captured our imagination,” Akhavan said. “It’s estimated that up to 95 per cent of civilian deaths have been the result of actions by the government of President Assad, and not by ISIS.”

(click to listen to the full interview with Payam Akhavan)

Listen
 In This April 21, 2014, file photo shows a Syrian man holding a girl as he stands on the rubble of houses that were destroyed by Syrian government forces air strikes in Aleppo, Syria.
In This April 21, 2014, file photo shows a Syrian man holding a girl as he stands on the rubble of houses that were destroyed by Syrian government forces air strikes in Aleppo, Syria. © Uncredited

At the time when there is a fragile ceasefire holding in Syria, when the United Nations is trying to initiate some sort of a peace process we have to ask ourselves whether any kind of peace would be sustainable in Syria if those who are responsible for mass murder remain in power, Akhavan said.

“Very often, the so-called ‘political realists’ tell the human rights activists that they are naïve, that they are idealistic, that they have to be realistic about power reality,” Akhavan said.

“But we have to equally realize that a realistic peace must be based on some measure of justice, that in a country like Syria, or Iraq, or Yemen, where conflict and violence have systematically exploited religious and ethnic identity, and ripped once multi-ethnic countries apart, we have to consider whether it’s really possible to heal those wounds and to reintegrate those fractured societies if there is not justice for the victims of these atrocities.”

Lessons of Bosnia
 In this photo taken on Sunday, March 20, 2016, a Bosnian woman walks among gravestones at Memorial Centre Potocari near Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In this photo taken on Sunday, March 20, 2016, a Bosnian woman walks among gravestones at Memorial Centre Potocari near Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina. © Amel Emric

Akhavan says he heard the same tune in Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.

Akhavan was a young lawyer just out of law school, when he became one of the first United Nations human rights investigators.

“I served on the ground including in Bosnia, where Karadzic was then the Bosnian Serb president, where I witnessed a lot of horrible atrocities against civilians,” Akhavan said.

At the time Karadzic was seemingly untouchable: he was the Bosnian Serb president, his army was powerful, the international community was not willing to intervene, and the United Nations peacekeepers were relegated the role of observers because there was no peace to keep, Akhavan said.

What’s worse Karadzic would be accorded the dignity of the head of state every time he visited Geneva for peace talks, he said.

“That was intensely frustrating, it was outrageous to see that he was, on the one hand responsible for ethnic cleansing and genocide, while on the other hand, he was enjoying freedom and impunity,” Akhavan said.

The thought that Karadzic would one day be a defendant in The Hague was unimaginable, he said.

 Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, left, and Gen. Ratko Mladic attend an assembly session in Pale, near Sarajevo, Bosnia, in this undated file photo.
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, left, and Gen. Ratko Mladic attend an assembly session in Pale, near Sarajevo, Bosnia, in this undated file photo. © SRDJAN ILIC

But following the 1995 Dayton Peace Accord, Karadzic fortunes began to change as he became a liability for the Bosnian Serb leadership.

Karadzic went into hiding for almost 13 years, changed his appearance and posed as a naturopath in a provincial town in Serbia, until his cover was blown and he was arrested.

Akhavan says given the overwhelming evidence against Karadzic, he expected the guilty verdict. Still, he breathed a sigh of relief last week, when the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at The Hague delivered its historic judgment against the Bosnian Serb leader.

He was found guilty of the Srebrenica genocide, the slaughter of thousands of unarmed Muslim men and boys after the Serbian forces overran the Muslim town, and other acts of “ethnic cleansing” against countless Bosnian Muslim and Croat civilians during the horrific 1992-95 Bosnian war.

Overcoming culture of impunity

“It took 20 years from the time we prepared the indictment against him until his conviction,” Akhavan said.

His sentence of 40 years means that he will spend the rest of his days behind bars.

These are important lessons for a peace process in Syria and Iraq, Akhavan said.

Throughout the UN era, there was a culture of impunity in which genocidal leaders not only went unpunished but very often they were rewarded exactly because of their ruthlessness, Akhavan said.

“The Karadzic judgment is a reminder that there are no easy or immediate solutions for victims seeking redress,” Akhavan wrote in an op-ed piece in the Globe and Mail newspaper. “But it is also a reminder that with moral clarity and political persistence, it is possible to subject once untouchable tyrants to the rule of law and to build a better future. For genocide, justice delayed is better than justice denied.”

Opposition urges Liberals to recognize other genocides committed by ISIS

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 A girl from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, rests at the Iraqi-Syrian border crossing in Fishkhabour, Dohuk province August 13, 2014.

The recognition of genocide committed by the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria against the Yazidi minority by the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week was “too little, too late,” says an opposition member of parliament and former Canadian defence minister.

Conservative MP Jason Kenney says he wants Canada to extend the genocide recognition to other minorities targeted by ISIS as well.

(click to listen the full interview with Jason Kenney)

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Not just Yazidis

Last week, after months of pressure from the opposition and just two days after Liberal MPs defeated a Conservative Party motion to declare the campaign by ISIS against Yazidis and other religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria genocide, Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion declared he was now convinced that the militant group is conducting genocide.

Dion’s about-face came following the release of a report by the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, which stated that “ISIS has committed the crime of genocide as well as multiple crimes against humanity and war crimes against the Yazidis, thousands of whom are held captive in the Syrian Arab Republic where they are subject to almost unimaginable horrors.”

“Minister Dion’s statement in Parliament only referred to the genocide against the Yazidi people, who are certainly suffering terribly from that genocide,” Kenney said in an interview with RCI. “But all other jurisdictions who have spoken to this recognize that there are more communities who are victims of this genocide, including the ancient indigenous Assyrian, Chaldean, Armenian and other religious and ethnic minorities.”

 Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Islamic State in Sinjar town, walk towards the Syrian border on the outskirts of Sinjar mountain near the Syrian border town of Elierbeh of Al-Hasakah Governorate in this August 11, 2014.
Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Islamic State in Sinjar town, walk towards the Syrian border on the outskirts of Sinjar mountain near the Syrian border town of Elierbeh of Al-Hasakah Governorate in this August 11, 2014. © Rodi Said / Reuters
Protecting definition of genocide

Last week, in an interview with CBC Power & Politics host Rosemary Barton, Dion defended the Liberal reluctance to recognize the atrocities committed by ISIS against Yazidis and other minorities without prior determination by relevant international bodies.

(click to listen Stephane Dion’s interview with Rosemary Barton on the CBC’s Power & Politics program)

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“There is something very important for human kind, it’s to protect the definition of genocide,” Dion said. “It’s not like the other atrocities and horrors that we need to condemn and to fight. It’s the intent to destroy groups: ethnic or religious groups. And this should be demonstrated by the highest rigour, by an independent investigation.”

Dion said once the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria report came out with its report, the Liberals recognized the genocide and called on the UN Security Council to make sure that a full investigation is carried out and that the perpetrators are prosecuted.

‘Responsibility to protect’

Kyle Matthews, Senior Deputy Director of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies at Concordia University and a Fellow at the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, said Canada has to follow norms detailed by the Genocide Convention and the “Responsibility to Protect” doctrine, which came about thanks to past support from the Canadian government.

“It simply says you can’t just wait to the end, wait for the people to be killed and then prosecute the killers, but in fact you have to provide immediate protection,” Matthews said.

(click to listen the full interview with Kyle Matthews)

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 Kurdish peshmerga forces look at bones in a mass grave on the outskirts of the town of Sinjar, February 3, 2015.
Kurdish peshmerga forces look at bones in a mass grave on the outskirts of the town of Sinjar, February 3, 2015. © Stringer . / Reuters

The question that is raised for Canada and its allies who also recognized the genocide is what will they do to help the Yazidi people, a persecuted Kurdish religious minority whose beliefs integrate elements of the ancient Zoroastrian religion as well Christianity and Islam, Matthews said.

“Will they deploy forces to the part of Iraq where the Yazidis are to physically protect them? Or will they provide refugee resettlement to those Yazidis who are displaced and have no hope,” Matthews said. “You have to do something that is going to protect them now, not four-five years down the road.”

Returning to bombing mission

Kenney said the most obvious and direct way to protect vulnerable communities in Iraq and Syria is by participating in the international combat operations against ISIS.

“While Canada does have military assets in Iraq, they are there to train Kurdish peshmerga, which is good and useful, but it’s not actually combat against the ‘genocidaires’ who are committing these crimes,” Kenney said.

The Conservatives are calling on the Liberal government to redeploy the Royal Canadian Air Force fighter jets to rejoin the bombing campaign against ISIS as they were doing from October 2014 until the Liberal government ended combat operations in March of 2016, Kenney said.

 Iraqi Kurdish female fighter Haseba Nauzad (2nd R), 24, and Yazidi female fighter Asema Dahir (3rd R), 21, aim their weapon during a deployment near the frontline of the fight against Islamic State militants in Nawaran near Mosul, Iraq, April 20, 2016.
Iraqi Kurdish female fighter Haseba Nauzad (2nd R), 24, and Yazidi female fighter Asema Dahir (3rd R), 21, aim their weapon during a deployment near the frontline of the fight against Islamic State militants in Nawaran near Mosul, Iraq, April 20, 2016. © Ahmed Jadallah / Reuters
Resettlement of Yazidi women and girls

On the humanitarian front, the Conservatives are urging the government to create a special resettlement program for about 400 internally displaced Yazidi women and girls who have been victims of sexual slavery, Kenney said. Several hundred of these women live in camps for internally displaced people in the Kurdish region of Iraq, near Irbil, he said.

During his tenure as immigration minister in the government of former Prime Minister of Stephen Harper, Kenney said he had set up a special program to bring to Canada thousands of Iraqi refugees from vulnerable minority communities.

Yazidi refugee women stand behind fences as they wait for the arrival of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Special Envoy Angelina Jolie at a Syrian and Iraqi refugee camp in the southern Turkish town of Midyat in Mardin province, Turkey, June 20, 2015.
Yazidi refugee women stand behind fences as they wait for the arrival of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Special Envoy Angelina Jolie at a Syrian and Iraqi refugee camp in the southern Turkish town of Midyat in Mardin province, Turkey, June 20, 2015. ©  Umit Bektas / Reuters

However, targeted refugee resettlement programs can be a double-edged sword, said Matthews.

“I think there is definitely a good argument to be made to say that the resettlement of people that are facing genocide does kind of feed in to… it helps the objective of what the group is trying to do in the first place,” Matthews said. “It’s true, if you try to resettle Yazidis, you weaken the group, and you diminish the size of the group so they can’t fight back or protect themselves. It’s basically helping ISIS achieve its objectives because they want to wipe out all diversity in the Middle East.”

Kenney acknowledged that resettlement programs have to strike a very careful balance between protecting vulnerable minorities by offering them refuge in a safe country and unintentionally supporting campaigns of ethnic cleansing, designed to destroy and displace ethnic and religious minorities in the Middle East.

“On the other hand if there are people who have fled and are extremely vulnerable, they need special care like these Yazidi girls, I think there is a moral obligation to help some of them while trying to create a security environment that they can all return home,” Kenney said.

Arming Yazidis and Assyrians
 Members of the Kurdish peshmerga forces gather in the town of Sinjar, Iraq November 13, 2015.
Members of the Kurdish peshmerga forces gather in the town of Sinjar, Iraq November 13, 2015. © STRINGER Iraq / Reuters

One of the ways Canada can contribute to security of these vulnerable communities is to help them train and equip their own security forces, Kenney said.

“When I was minister of defence last year, I was trying to explore ways in which Canadian Armed Forces could assist in training both Yazidi and Assyrian militias,” Kenney said.

Matthews pointed out that while Canada’s expanded training program championed by the Liberal government is going to help Kurds protect themselves, it’s going to do very little to help the Yazidis, most whom leave outside the Kurdish Regional Government, where the Canadian Special Forces trainers operate.

The minorities that have historically populated the Nineveh plain regions in north-central Iraq are uniquely vulnerable and they’re very concerned that when ISIS is pushed out of the region, there will be a struggle between the Iraqi government and its security forces on one side and the Kurdish Regional Government and its peshmerga troops on the other for effective control of the region, Kenney said.

“Both the Yazidis and the Assyrian minorities are concerned they will be completely marginalized in that internal Iraqi power struggle,” Kenney said.

The Yazidis also point out that when ISIS showed up in their indigenous homeland of Mount Sinjar region of north-western Iraq in August of 2014, that the Kurdish peshmerga forces initially melted away, leaving them undefended, Kenney said.

“I think there is a moral obligation for Canada and other countries to assist with what I would call a Nineveh Plains Protection Plan,” Kenney said. “I think part of that involves training and equipping at least a constabulary force of Yazidis and Assyrians so they can protect themselves in a very difficult environment, so they can go back to their ancestral towns and villages, and so that the ethnic cleansing is ultimately not successful.”

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Canada to co-host Iraq pledging conference

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 Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, left to right, International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion attend a news conference in Ottawa on Monday, Feb. 8, 2016.

Canada will join with the United States, Germany and Japan to co-host the Pledging Conference in Support of Iraq, in Washington, D.C., next month, Canadian officials said today.

The pledging conference, which will kick off on July 20, comes at the request of the United States.

The State Department said Wednesday the desperate humanitarian situation in the western Iraqi city of Fallujah — where government forces have taken back large parts of the city from Islamic State militants — is the most recent reminder of the toll that the war is taking on vulnerable civilians.

Washington said it planned to make a “substantial pledge” at the conference and urged other nations to join in.

Joining forces

“The international community must join forces to eradicate ISIL and also to help meet the immediate needs of millions of Iraqis displaced by conflict,” Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion said in a statement. “We must not lose sight of the need to address the underlying causes of the crisis in Iraq so that the country’s stability is restored.”

Canada will contribute more than $1.6 billion over the next three years towards its new approach to security, stabilization, humanitarian and development assistance in response to the crises in Iraq and Syria, and their impact on Jordan and Lebanon, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in February as he unveiled his government’s strategy of dealing with the so-called Islamic State.

Since January 2014, Canada has already committed more than $140 million in humanitarian assistance, $26 million in stabilization and security assistance, and $23 million in long-term development assistance to Iraq.

It’s unclear whether at the pledging conference Trudeau will announce additional funds or simply accelerate the schedule of its already pledged contributions.

Desperate shortage
 Displaced Iraqi children, who fled from Falluja because of Islamic State violence, are seen at a camp on the outskirts of Falluja, Iraq, June 22, 2016
Displaced Iraqi children, who fled from Falluja because of Islamic State violence, are seen at a camp on the outskirts of Falluja, Iraq, June 22, 2016 © Osamah Waheeb / Reuters

The State Department said the United Nations already had been forced to close down dozens of lifesaving programs under its Iraq Humanitarian Response Plan because of a lack of funds.

That plan has gotten just 33 percent of the $861 US million the U.N. says is needed. That price tag could climb as high as $2 US billion over the coming months.

Canada condemns deadly Baghdad bombing

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 A woman reacts at the site after a suicide car bomb attack at the shopping area of Karrada, a largely Shi’ite district, in Baghdad, Iraq July 4, 2016.

Canada “strongly condemns” Sunday’s suicide bomb attack in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, that killed at least 165 people, said Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion.

“Once again, the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) demonstrates its complete disregard for human life and for Islam, a religion of peace that fosters the respect and promotion of human life,” Dion said in a statement.

“These savage attacks occurred during one of the last holy evenings of the month of Ramadan, as people were preparing for Eid.”

A refrigerator truck packed with explosives was detonated in the predominantly Shia Karrada district while families were shopping for the holiday marking the end of Ramadan.

“On behalf of the Government of Canada, I offer my sincere condolences to the families and friends of the victims,” Dion said.

Mourning and anger

The Iraqi government has declared three days of mourning after the huge blast, which injured 225 others.

It is believed to be the deadliest single bomb attack in Iraq since 2007, increasing pressure on the government of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to accelerate its crackdown on Islamic State militants.

 People light candles at the scene of a massive car bomb attack in Karada, a busy shopping district where people were shopping for the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holiday, in the center of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, July 3, 2016.
People light candles at the scene of a massive car bomb attack in Karada, a busy shopping district where people were shopping for the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holiday, in the center of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, July 3, 2016. © Hadi Mizban

The attacks also cast a shadow over victory statements made last month by al-Abadi’s government, in the wake of the capture by government forces of Fallujah, the first Iraqi city to fall to the ultra-hardline militant group and an Islamic State stronghold about 50 km west of west of Baghdad.

Al-Abadi’s government ordered the offensive on Fallujah in May after a series of deadly bombings in Shia areas of Baghdad that they said originated from Fallujah.

The Iraqi prime minister was greeted by angry crowds when he visited Karrada in the hours after the bombing with residents throwing stones and other trash at his convoy in gestures of contempt.

The government has ordered Iraqi security forces to develop new measures to protect Baghdad, starting with the withdrawal of fake bomb detectors that police have continued to use despite a scandal that broke out in 2011 about their sale to Iraq under his predecessor, Nuri al-Maliki.

The hand-held devices were initially developed to find lost golf balls, and the British businessman who sold them to Iraq for $40 million was jailed in Britain in 2013.

The government has ordered that the fake devices be replaced by efficient detectors at the entrances to Baghdad and Iraq’s provinces.

Training Iraqi forces
 A Canadian soldier directs Kurdish soldiers in a drill as part of Canada’s Advise and Assist mission 40 km west of Erbil, Iraq, on Saturday, May 2, 2015.
A Canadian soldier directs Kurdish soldiers in a drill as part of Canada’s Advise and Assist mission 40 km west of Erbil, Iraq, on Saturday, May 2, 2015. © PC/Sean Kilpatrick

Ottawa has deployed over 800 troops to the Middle East as part of Operation IMPACT, Canada’s contribution to the U.S.-led multinational coalition fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.

A Canadian aerial refuelling tanker and two spy planes conduct air operations in support of the U.S.-led coalition. Dozens of Canadian special forces commandos also provide training and assistance to the Iraqi security forces and the Kurdish peshmerga forces fighting ISIS in northern Iraq.

With files from Reuters

Canadian aircraft still fighting Daesh

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A CP-140M Aurora reconnaissance aircraft  does an engine run-up before taxiing to leave CFB Greenwood in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley. Three Canadian planes, two Auroras, and a Polaris refueler are still contributing to the coalition fightint terrorists in Iraq and Syria

Under Canada’s previous Conservative government, six CF-18 fighter jets had joined the US-led coalition bombing mission in 2014 against the terrorists in Iraq and Syria.

In February of this year,  a few months after being elected, the federal Liberal government announced it was withdrawing its jets and ending the combat mission.

However, Canadian planes continue to contribute to the combat mission, but in other ways.

March 2015: The CC-150 Polaris refueler returns after successfully completing its 100th refueling mission over Iraq during Operation IMPACT
March 2015: The CC-150 Polaris refueler returns after successfully completing its 100th refueling mission over Iraq during Operation IMPACT © OP Impact-DND

A Polaris air-to-air refueling craft continues to supply other fighter jets and two Aurora surveillance planes are supplying photos and data to the Allies for combat missions. There are also three Canadian helicopters ferrying troops and equipment with a fourth soon to be added.

Quoted by the Canadian Press, Brig.-Gen. Shane Brennan, commander of Canada’s Joint Task Force-Iraq, adds that the number of Canadian intelligence officers assigned to the anti-terrorist effort has grown to 50.

Although the Auroras are 30 years old and are used primarily for anti-submarine platforms, a number of technological upgrades including a variety of electro-optical and infrared sensors have made them a very useful tool in the middle east.

The Defence Department says the Polaris has flown  almost 550 missions delivering thousands of tons of fuel over the last two years, while the surveillance planes have also flown almost 600 missions over Daesh territory.

A Canadian field hospital is soon to be deployed as well.

additional information-sources

Special forces commander fined for accidentally firing gun on Iraq front line

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Commander Canadian Special Operations Forces Command Brigadier-General Michael Rouleau speaks during a technical briefing Monday, January 19, 2015 in Ottawa.

A court martial found the commander of Canada’s elite special forces guilty of accidentally firing his weapon during a visit to Iraqi frontlines and fined him $2,000 on Tuesday.

Maj.-Gen. Michael Rouleau had pleaded guilty after he was charged under the National Defence Act with one count of neglect to the prejudice of good order and discipline.

The charge stemmed from an an incident “on or around 20 December 2015, where he discharged his personal weapon without authorization,” the military said. A statement from Rouleau released earlier this year said he was loading his rifle while preparing to visit a frontline position when he accidentally fired a single round.

No one was injured in the incident but Rouleau said in his statement that for a soldier “the only acceptable standard of care with a weapon is error-free.”

Up to 200 Canadian special forces troops have been sent to Iraq where they are helping Kurdish peshmerga fighters fight ISIS militants in northern Iraq.

With files from The Canadian Press

Mosul operation raises questions about safety of civilians and future of Iraq

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Peshmerga forces advance in the east of Mosul to attack Islamic State militants in Mosul, Iraq, October 18, 2016.

As Iraqi security forces and Kurdish peshmerga units push deeper into ISIS-controlled territory to recapture Iraq’s second largest city, the plight of Mosul’s civilian population is top on the minds of humanitarian and military experts.

Around 1.5 million people still live in Mosul and the International Organization for Migration said ISIS may use tens of thousands of residents as human shields to hold onto their last city stronghold in Iraq.

Kyle Matthews, Senior Deputy Director of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies at Concordia University and a Fellow at the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, said nobody is under any illusion about the possible toll on the civilian population of Mosul as Iraqi and Kurdish forces try to wrestle it back.

“ISIS is a group that doesn’t wear military uniforms, they blend in into the civilian population, they put weapons and other stuff in the civilian areas, so there is a concern,” Matthews said.

(click to listen to the interview with Kyle Matthews)

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People who fled the Islamic State’s strongholds of Hawija and Mosul, receive aid at a camp for displaced people in Daquq, Iraq, October 13, 2016.
People who fled the Islamic State’s strongholds of Hawija and Mosul, receive aid at a camp for displaced people in Daquq, Iraq, October 13, 2016. © Ako Rasheed / Reuters

Iraqi authorities and the United Nations have been preparing for a large influx of refugees trying to flee the besieged city, but resources are stretched thin to deal with another major refugee crisis in the Middle East. And Iraqi authorities are urging citizens of Mosul to stay put.

“As they go into a city of 2 million people, the size of Vancouver, they realize that ISIS doesn’t have 100,000 fighters, they have about three or four thousand,” Matthews said. “So it’s not like they are going to be fighting in every corner of the city. That’s probably the reason they want them to stay low, stay safe as they begin their operations.”

Tunnels, booby traps and snipers

For the last two years, Canadian Special Forces soldiers in northern Iraq have been training Kurdish peshmerga forces for this extremely dangerous mission, said retired Lt.-Col. Steve Day, a former leader of Canada’s elite JTF2 counterterrorism unit.

“As the coalition forces are moving through that city, the have to clear building by building, which means room by room, and it’s just takes a lot of time to work your way through a city,” Day said. “You’ve got to watch out for improvised explosive devices or booby traps, clearly they’ve got snipers and marksmen that are constantly trying to target and engage you as you’re moving through. To fight in that environment is extremely difficult.”

(click to listen to the interview with Steve Day)

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Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers stand around a tunnel dug by ISIS in a house recently recaptured by the Kurds during the battle to retake Mosul, on October 18, 2016 in Bartella, near Mosul in Iraq.
Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers stand around a tunnel dug by ISIS in a house recently recaptured by the Kurds during the battle to retake Mosul, on October 18, 2016 in Bartella, near Mosul in Iraq. © GI/Carl Court

ISIS has had two years to prepare for this battle, he said.

“They’ve gone subterranean, they’ve gone street level, they’ve gone above street level and it will take a significant effort and time to envelope that city and then slowly and methodically work their way through it, while trying to protect the civilian population,” Day said.

“But make no mistake about it, this is going to be very hard and there are going to be significant casualties as these forces fight with each other and move through this built up area.”

A necessary fight

Despite support from Western countries such as the United States, Britain, France and Canada, which has about 170 Special Forces troops training and advising the Kurds, most of the fighting is expected to be carried out by either Kurdish peshmerga militias or the Iraqi security forces.

“Western countries are not playing the biggest role,” Matthews said. “They are not going to be the ones sending their soldiers in large numbers, it will be Iraqi and Kurdish forces.”

Taking over Mosul is crucial for the future of Iraq, Matthews said.

“What happens to people if you let them live in a city of 2 million people controlled by ISIS, which is targeting minorities, carrying out vicious attacks, pretty much committing every crime against humanity in the book,” Matthews said. “Can you really just allow that to continue and I think there is a good moral argument to say no.”

What happens after?

The biggest question is what happens after Mosul is liberated, what’s do be done at the political level to be more inclusive, to deal with some of the political issues that allowed a few hundred ISIS fighters to take over Mosul in the first place, Matthews said.

“What is the enduring objective or our presence there in the Middle East,” Day said. “I’m not a 100 per cent sure that as the West we actually have a coherent strategy for what we want this part of the world to look like.”

Neither does the West seem to have the strategic patience to deal with an issue of such complexity, Day said.

“If you look at the 15 years we spent in Afghanistan, does the West have the stomach for 30 to 50 years of rebuilding in Iraq?” he asked.

Thousands of Yazidis are ready to move to Canada: NGO

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A displaced Iraqi woman from the Yazidi community, who fled violence between Islamic State (IS) group jihadists and Peshmerga fighters in the northern town of Sinjar, stands at a camp for internally displaced persons (IDP) in the Sharia area, some 15 kilometres from the city of Dohuk, on November 17, 2016.

Canadian authorities looking for candidates for resettlement in Canada among Yazidi refugees scattered in camps in northern Iraq will have no shortage of applicants, says a Yazidi NGO working with the refugees.

“If you give a chance to people to immigrate, thousands of Yazidis from Iraq will go,” said Abid Shamdeen, director of government relations for Yazda, a U.S.-based NGO that operates in northern Iraq.

“What I’ve noticed from my interactions with people here, with the community, with friends and family most of the Yazidi community wants to immigrate somehow.”

(click to listen to the full interview with Abid Shamdeen)

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History of persecution and discrimination
A refugee woman from the minority Yazidi sect, who fled the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, sits with a child inside a tent at Nowruz refugee camp in Qamishli, northeastern Syria August 17, 2014.
A refugee woman from the minority Yazidi sect, who fled the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, sits with a child inside a tent at Nowruz refugee camp in Qamishli, northeastern Syria August 17, 2014. ©  Rodi Said / Reuters

The Yazidis are a Kurdish-speaking religious minority spread across northern Iraq and Syria, southeastern Turkey and Armenia. Their religion, which combines elements of Zoroastrian, Christian and Muslim beliefs, has made them targets of religious discrimination and persecution for centuries.

Denounced as infidels and devil-worshippers, the Yazidis in northern Iraq have been targeted by ISIS militants over the last two years. Thousands of Yazidi men were killed, while thousands of women and girls were carried off, bought and sold in slave markets, forced into sexual slavery, when ISIS forces overran their ancient homeland in northern Iraq in 2014.

Yazidis continue to face discrimination in northern Iraq even after surviving genocide, Shamdeen said.

“If you’re not respected, if you’re not protected, if you’re not considered as a regular citizen, if you’re considered a second-class citizen in this country, then I, as a person, feel that it’s best for me to immigrate,” he said.

‘Wonderful news’
Nadia Murad Basee Taha, United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking, waves while being recognized by the Speaker in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, October 25, 2016.
Nadia Murad Basee Taha, United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking, waves while being recognized by the Speaker in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, October 25, 2016. © Chris Wattie / Reuters

Shamdeen dismissed criticism voiced by some Yazidi and Kurdish leaders that relocating Yazidi refugees to Canada and Germany will hurt the community’s chances to re-establish itself in its war-ravaged ancestral homeland.

“A few thousand people going to the West will not harm the Yazidi connection to this land,” Shamdeen said. “There are hundreds of thousands of Yazidis here and I think if Canada takes a few thousand people or even takes several thousands of people, it will not do any harm to the connection of the Yazidis to the their homeland.”

The unanimous adoption of the motion by the House of Commons at the end of October to recognize the Yazidi genocide perpetrated by ISIS and to organize an urgent resettlement program for the most vulnerable Yazidi refugees, particularly women and children, within 120 days “was wonderful news,” Shamdeen said.

Refugee relocation blitz

Between March 2015 and February 2016, a similar relocation program – organized by the German state of Baden-Württemberg – airlifted for treatment in Germany 1,100  of the most vulnerable Yazidi women and girls suffering from the mental and physical scars of their captivity at the hands of ISIS.

Dr. Jan Ilhan Kizilhan, head of Department of Mental Health and Addiction, Cooperative State University in Stuttgart, who was medical and psychological head of the Baden-Württemberg’s Special Quota Project, said there are at least 1,900 other vulnerable Yazidi women and girls who need urgent medical and mental health treatment to help them deal with the trauma of their horrific experiences in ISIS captivity.

‘Most of them will not survive’
A displaced Iraqi woman from the Yazidi community, who fled violence between Islamic State (IS) group jihadists and Peshmerga fighters in the northern town of Sinjar, stands at a camp for internally displaced persons (IDP) in the Sharia area, some 15 kilometres from the city of Dohuk, on November 17, 2016.
A displaced Iraqi woman from the Yazidi community, who fled violence between Islamic State (IS) group jihadists and Peshmerga fighters in the northern town of Sinjar, stands at a camp for internally displaced persons (IDP) in the Sharia area, some 15 kilometres from the city of Dohuk, on November 17, 2016. © SAFIN HAMED/AFP/Getty Images

Dr. Kizilhan praised Ottawa’s commitment to bring some of these vulnerable women and their families to Canada, saying that the refugees remain in dire straits when it comes to psychological, psycho-social and psychiatric help available to them.

“In North Iraq we have about five million people and two million refugees,” he said. “That means we have seven million people in North Iraq but only 28 or 30 psychotherapists and psychiatrists.”

The victims of the jihadists’ terror campaign simply can’t get enough qualified help, especially in dealing with mental trauma and health, he said.

“For that reason I wish and I hope the Canadian parliament and the Canadian government would do the same project that we did to bring the most vulnerable women and girls to Canada for medical treatment, for psychotherapy, because if not, most of them will not survive,” Dr. Kizilhan said.

Secret plan
Yazidi sisters, who escaped from captivity by Islamic State (IS) militants, sit in a tent at Sharya refugee camp on the outskirts of Duhok province July 3, 2015. The sisters were among one hundred women, men and children taken by IS as prisoners after the militants attacked their village of Tal Ezayr in the northern Iraqi province of Mosul close to Syrian border last year.
Yazidi sisters, who escaped from captivity by Islamic State (IS) militants, sit in a tent at Sharya refugee camp on the outskirts of Duhok province July 3, 2015. The sisters were among one hundred women, men and children taken by IS as prisoners after the militants attacked their village of Tal Ezayr in the northern Iraqi province of Mosul close to Syrian border last year. © STRINGER Iraq / Reuters

Canadian officials say they are working on a plan to bring in these vulnerable women as mandated by the House of Commons.

However, citing operational security Canadian officials are refusing to share information on any specifics.

“We’ve made a commitment to resettle vulnerable persons who have been victims of Daesh, and we are working towards meeting that commitment,” said Lisa Filipps, a spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, referring to ISIS with its Arabic acronym.

“As previously indicated, we recognize that operating in the region is complex and could pose risks. As a result, it is imperative that we consider the next steps very carefully.”

Hoping for help from Canada

Shamdeen said his group has not heard of or seen any specific plans for resettlement of vulnerable Yazidi refugees to Canada.

“We hope to hear something soon and we hope this will go through within the timeframe set by the parliament,” Shamdeen said.

The Yazidi community in northern Iraq desperately needs help, Shamdeen said.

A displaced woman and children from the minority Yazidi sect, who were kidnapped by Islamic State militants of Tal Afar but managed to escape, are seen at a house in Duhok province, northern Iraq, November 24, 2016.
A displaced woman and children from the minority Yazidi sect, who were kidnapped by Islamic State militants of Tal Afar but managed to escape, are seen at a house in Duhok province, northern Iraq, November 24, 2016. © Ari Jalal / Reuters

“Ninety per cent of Yazidis are internally displaced, we have hundreds of people in captivity still, women and children in ISIS captivity,” Shamdeen said. “The Yazidi case is not receiving the attention that it needs inside Iraq, there are no specific plans to liberate these captives; and the ones that managed to escape, and the ones that were rescued by their family and friends are not receiving the care they need.”

These Yazidi survivors of ISIS captivity need urgent psychological and mental health help, they need material help, he said.

“That help is not being provided for these survivors,” Shamdeen said. “And as far as the rest of the Yazidi community they don’t see much hope in this country, they don’t see plans to protect them, even after going through a genocide, so they see as their only hope to emigrate and go to a country like Canada, or to Europe, or to the U.S.”

Canadian volunteer fighting ISIS arrested in Iraq: mother

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Former Canadian soldier Michael Kennedy was taken into custody in Iraq last Tuesday, according to his mother

A Canadian volunteer who has spent the past six months fighting ISIS alongside Kurdish forces has been arrested in northern Iraq, Canadian officials confirmed Monday.

Michael Kennedy, 32, a former Canadian soldier, was on his way back to Canada, trying to make it home to Newfoundland for Christmas, when he was taken into custody by Iraqi Kurdish authorities, his mother Kay Gibbons Kennedy told The National Post.

“All I know is he’s been arrested and he’s in Erbil,” she said from Saint Vincent’s, in southwestern Newfoundland.

A Kurdish friend of her son’s told her that “nobody knows the reasons” for the arrest, she added.

Canadian officials provide consular assistance

Officials at Global Affairs Canada said they were aware of the case of a Canadian citizen currently detained in Iraq. 

“Canadian officials are providing consular assistance to the individual and are in contact with local authorities,” Kristine Racicot, Global Affairs spokesperson, told RCI in email. 

Due to privacy considerations, officials refused disclose any further information.

“Global Affairs Canada advises against all non-essential travel to Iraq, including the provinces under the control of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Dohuk, Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, as the security situation could deteriorate quickly,” Racicot wrote. “All Canadians who travel to Syria and Iraq must do so at their own personal risk. Due to the unpredictable security situation, providing consular assistance in all parts of Iraq and Syria is severely limited.”

Gibbons Kennedy could not be reached for comment today but on Sunday she told The National Post’s Stewart Bell that the ordeal has been hard on her, especially since she lost another son, Pte. Kevin Kennedy of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, to a roadside bomb in Afghanistan on April 8, 2007.

Fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq

Michael Kennedy is a 13-year veteran of the Canadian Forces. Three months after leaving the military in March, he made his way to northern Syria.

“He decided to go over there in June. He decided to go fight ISIS after reading about what those Kurdish people were going through,” his Gibbons Kennedy told The National Post. “Michael decided to do this as sort of a humanitarian thing.”

Initially Kennedy fought alongside the YPG militia in northern Syria. About a month ago, he crossed into Iraq and has been fighting around Shingal, where ISIS conducted a genocidal campaign of ethnic cleansing against the minority Yazidi community.

Rivalry among Kurdish militia

There have been several reported cases of the Iraqi Kurdish forces of Massoud Barzani, the leader of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq arresting Western volunteer fighters, especially those who fought alongside the rival Kurdish YPG militias in Syria.

The Syrian Kurdish militias of YPG are closely linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Barzani’s long-time rivals. The PKK has set up bases in the mountains of northern Iraq from which it has waged a decades-long campaign for an independent Kurdish homeland in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq.

Barzani accuses the PKK, which Canada considers a terrorist organization, and its Syrian cousins in YPG of undermining his efforts to create an internationally recognized Kurdish entity in northern Iraq by constantly provoking Turkey into military operations in Kurdish-populated areas of Turkey and Iraq.

The PKK and YPG in turn accuse Barzani of collaborating with the Turkish military and security forces and betraying the larger goal of creating a unified Kurdish homeland, spanning parts of northern Iraq, Syria and southeastern Turkey.

The feud between Barzani’s forces and the YPG means that the volunteers who want to fight ISIS in Syria have to be smuggled into the country covertly, but face detention when they return to Iraq.

 Members of Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG) in northern Syria carry the coffin of Canadian volunteer John Gallagher on Nov. 12, 2015. Gallagher was killed in northeastern Syria on Nov. 4, 2015.
Members of Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG) in northern Syria carry the coffin of Canadian volunteer John Gallagher on Nov. 12, 2015. Gallagher was killed in northeastern Syria on Nov. 4, 2015. © Courtesy: Jesper Soder/Facebook

In February, another Canadian volunteer, Robert Somerville, was detained by Australian immigration authorities in Queensland because he had recently travelled to Syria to fight ISIS militants alongside Kurdish forces.

In early November 2015, Canadian volunteer John Gallagher was killed in northeastern Syria when an ISIS fighter detonated an explosive belt.

In late October 2015, Canadian volunteer Hanna Bohman posted on her Facebook that a Canadian volunteer was arrested in northern Iraq by Barzani’s forces along with five other Westerners as they tried to leave Syria.


Canadian volunteer released from Iraqi prison: mother

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Former Canadian soldier Michael Kennedy has been set free from an Iraqi prison and is expected to be home by Christmas

A Canadian volunteer arrested in northern Iraq last week has been released from prison, his mother says.

Kay Kennedy told VOCM radio in Newfoundland that her son, Michael Kennedy, a former Canadian soldier who spent the last six months fighting ISIS alongside Kurdish forces, was released Tuesday.

Kennedy, 32, was on his way back to Canada, trying to make it home to Newfoundland for Christmas, when he was taken into custody by Iraqi Kurdish authorities.

A friend of his confirmed via text message Kennedy had been arrested after returning from northern Syria.

Kennedy said her son would not leave others he was travelling with when they were arrested for visa infractions, even though his visa had not expired.

She said the ordeal has been hard on her, especially since she lost another son, Pte. Kevin Kennedy of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, to a roadside bomb in Afghanistan on April 8, 2007.

Michael Kennedy fought alongside the YPG militia in northern Syria. About a month ago, he crossed into Iraq and has been fighting around Shingal, where ISIS conducted a genocidal campaign of ethnic cleansing against the minority Yazidi community.

Former Canadian soldier Michael Kennedy was taken into custody in Iraq last Tuesday, according to his mother
Former Canadian soldier Michael Kennedy was taken into custody in Iraq last Tuesday, according to his mother

Rivalry among Kurdish militia

There have been several reported cases of the Iraqi Kurdish forces of Massoud Barzani, the leader of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq arresting Western volunteer fighters, especially those who fought alongside the rival Kurdish YPG militias in Syria.

The Syrian Kurdish militias of YPG are closely linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Barzani’s long-time rivals. The PKK has set up bases in the mountains of northern Iraq from which it has waged a decades-long campaign for an independent Kurdish homeland in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq.

 Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) fighters take up positions inside a damaged building in Ghwayran neighborhood in Hasaka city, Syria July 22, 2015.
Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) fighters take up positions inside a damaged building in Ghwayran neighborhood in Hasaka city, Syria July 22, 2015. ©  Rodi Said / Reuters

Barzani accuses the PKK, which Canada considers a terrorist organization, and its Syrian cousins in YPG of undermining his efforts to create an internationally recognized Kurdish entity in northern Iraq by constantly provoking Turkey into military operations in Kurdish-populated areas of Turkey and Iraq.

The PKK and YPG in turn accuse Barzani of collaborating with the Turkish military and security forces and betraying the larger goal of creating a unified Kurdish homeland, spanning parts of northern Iraq, Syria and southeastern Turkey.

The feud between Barzani’s forces and the YPG means that the volunteers who want to fight ISIS in Syria have to be smuggled into the country covertly, but face detention when they return to Iraq.

Travel advisory

Canadian government advises against all non-essential travel to Iraq, including the provinces under the control of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Dohuk, Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, as the “security situation could deteriorate quickly.”

All Canadians who travel to Syria and Iraq must do so at their own personal risk. Due to the unpredictable security situation, providing consular assistance in all parts of Iraq and Syria is severely limited,” Global Affairs Canada spokesperson Kristine Racicot said in a statement.

Canada reaffirms commitment to bring in Yazidi refugees

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A refugee woman from the minority Yazidi sect, who fled the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, sits with a child inside a tent at Nowruz refugee camp in Qamishli, northeastern Syria August 17, 2014.

With less than two days left on a Parliament-mandated deadline to relocate to Canada persecuted Yazidi refugees from northern Iraq, the federal government says it remains devoted to meeting its commitment but has yet to unveil any details.

“Canada has made a commitment to resettle vulnerable persons who are survivors of Daesh by February 22, 2017, and we are working towards meeting that commitment,” said Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada spokesperson Johanne Nadeau in an email, referring to ISIS by its Arabic acronym. “Further details will be made public in the coming days.”

However, citing security concerns, officials at IRCC have been very tight-lipped about any details of this operation, leading the opposition to suspect that Ottawa is not showing the same level of urgency in bringing Yazidi refugees as it did in the much better publicized campaign to bring in Syrian refugees.

“They’ve had four months, and they haven’t brought anyone to date,” said Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel.

The Yazidis are a Kurdish-speaking religious minority spread across northern Iraq and Syria, southeastern Turkey and Armenia. Their millennia-old religion has made them targets of religious discrimination and persecution for centuries.

A displaced woman from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing violence in Iraq, looks out from an abandoned house where she is taking refuge in the southeastern Turkish town of Silopi, near the Turkish-Iraqi border crossing of Habur, August 13, 2014.
A displaced woman from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing violence in Iraq, looks out from an abandoned house where she is taking refuge in the southeastern Turkish town of Silopi, near the Turkish-Iraqi border crossing of Habur, August 13, 2014. © Stringer Turkey / Reuters

Denounced as infidels and devil-worshippers, the Yazidis in northern Iraq have been targeted by ISIS militants over the last two years. Thousands of Yazidi men were killed, while thousands of women and girls were carried off, bought and sold in slave markets, forced into sexual slavery, when ISIS forces overran their ancient homeland in northern Iraq in 2014.

In June, a United Nations report said ISIS was seeking to wipe out the 400,000-strong Yazidi community in its ancestral homeland of northern Iraq.

Nadia Murad Basee Taha, United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking, waves while being recognized by the Speaker in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, October 25, 2016.
Nadia Murad Basee Taha, United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking, waves while being recognized by the Speaker in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, October 25, 2016. © Chris Wattie / Reuters

Rempel, who spearheaded the October 25, 2016, unanimous motion in Parliament to recognize the ISIS campaign against Yazidis as genocide and to bring to Canada some of the most vulnerable survivors,  demanded to know last week why “zero government-sponsored refugees have arrived from the Yazidi community.”

“We are proud of the fact that members of this House voted and expressed their support to resettle victims and survivors of Daesh into Canada,” Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Ahmed Hussen said in response to Rempel’s question in the House of Commons last Thursday. “We fully committed to meet that goal. We have an operation that is already under way. I will be providing details in the near future.”

Rempel said she worries the government plans to bring in a few Yazidis from UN camps in neighbouring Turkey instead of the women stuck in camps for internally displaced people in northern Iraq.

“I worry that this is just another Liberal broken promise, but this is a broken promise that will cost lives,” Rempel said.

Refugees-English

Canadian air crew head to northern Iraq

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Two CH-146 Griffon helicopters land near Camp Érable, Iraq during Operation IMPACT on February 20, 2017.

About 60 members of the Royal Canadian Air Force’s 408 Tactical Helicopter Squadron, based in Edmonton, Alberta, departed for northern Iraq on Monday to relieve their comrades in arms from Quebec who’ve been in Iraqi Kurdistan for the last six months.

The air crew and support units from 3rd Canadian Division Support Base will assume the duties of the Tactical Aviation Detachment of Air Task Force-Iraq as part of Operation IMPACT, the Canadian Armed Forces’ commitment to the fight against Islamic State militants in northern Iraq, officials said.

They will fly and maintain up to four CH-146 Griffon helicopters, co-located with the Canadian-led field hospital at Camp Érable, in northern Iraq.

“The Royal Canadian Air Force is proud to be part of the Canadian Armed Forces’ contribution to the ongoing fight against Daesh,” said in a statement Maj.-Gen. Christian Drouin, Commander 1 Canadian Air Division, referring to the Islamic State by its Arabic acronym. “We provide air power that integrates with and supports our CAF and coalition partners. The tactical helicopter detachment is a crucial component of this commitment.”

Two CH-146 Griffon helicopters take off from the flight line near Camp Érable, Iraq during Operation IMPACT on February 20, 2017.
Two CH-146 Griffon helicopters take off from the flight line near Camp Érable, Iraq during Operation IMPACT on February 20, 2017. © Joint Task Force – Iraq PAO Team

The Canadian government first deployed CH-146 Griffon helicopters and personnel to Operation IMPACT in May 2016. Currently there are four CH-146 Griffon helicopters in theatre.

Canada also has deployed to the region one CC-150(T) Polaris air-to-air refuelling aircraft, and up to two CP-140 Aurora intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, both of which are based in Kuwait.

There are about 830 Canadian military personnel based in both Iraq and Kuwait, including dozens of special forces soldiers who’ve been training Kurdish peshmerga fighters involved in operations against Islamic State militants in northern Iraq.

Canadian smashes sniper record

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 A Canadian sniper team scan the landscape during an Afghan-led operation to arrest suspected Taliban operating in the Panjwayi district of southern Kandahar province, supported by Coalition forces, 28 April 2006. Three Afghan police were killed, while security forces shot dead two Taliban rebels in separate incidents 29 April in southern Helmand province, officials said.

A Canadian sniper team, members of an elite military group, have set a new, almost unimaginable, and probably unbeatable record for a sniper shot, over three and half kilometres.

Factors such as wind, distance, arc of the trajectory, and thermal currents all have to be accounted for in such extreme shots.  Additionally, in this case the height of the Canadian team’s tower location versus the insurgent on the ground also had to be considered, and at such a distance even the curvature of the Earth is a factor for the spotter and shooter.

A Canadian sniper team scan the landscape during an Afghan-led operation to arrest suspected Taliban operating in the Panjwayi district of southern Kandahar province, supported by Coalition forces, 28 April 2006. Three Afghan police were killed, while security forces shot dead two Taliban rebels in separate incidents 29 April in southern Helmand province, officials said.
A Canadian sniper team scan the landscape during an Afghan-led operation to arrest suspected Taliban operating in the Panjwayi district of southern Kandahar province, supported by Coalition forces, 28 April 2006. Including the new record distance, Canadian snipers now hold 3 of the top five longest confirmed kills. © JOHN D MCHUGH; AFP/ GETTY Images

The confirmed record kill took place sometime during the last 30 days in Iraq. Names and the location have not been revealed for security reasons but Canadians were last reported to be in northern Iraq advising security forces and Kurdish Peshmerga in a major operation to recapture Mosul.

From an observation post in a high-rise building, the soldier with Canada’s special force “Joint Task Force-2” managed to break up a Daesh (ISIS) attack on Iraqi security forces.

A Canadian sniper and spotter team in Afghanistan with a McMillan TAC-50 from the feature film Hyena Road
A Canadian sniper and spotter team in Afghanistan with a McMillan TAC-50 from the feature film “Hyena Road” © Elevation Pictures

Military sources say use of snipers is preferable in built up areas for its precision as opposed to use of airstrikes to break up attacks which may harm civilians.

The shot, which took several seconds to hit the Daesh terrorist, broke up the insurgents planned ambush as they had no idea where they were being attacked from.

The 3,540 metre shot was confirmed by video and other sources.

A group of Canadian Forces personnel are in advisory positions in Iraq to help security forces there. The action was sanctioned as falling within the CF role to assist Iraq in efforts to defeat Daesh.

The previous confirmed record kill was 2,475 metres by a British soldier set in 2009

Three of the five longest confirmed sniper kills have been by Canadians.

Canadian Forces have several models and calibres of sniper rifle. In this case the .50 calibre McMillan TAC-50 was used,

Additional information- sources

Canada to extend anti-ISIS mission by 2 years

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Minister of Defence Harjit Sajjan speaks at CFB Trenton in Trenton, Ont., on Thursday June 8, 2017.

Canada is extending its military mission against ISIS by another two years, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a joint statement today.

The mission will now go to March 31, 2019.

The extension includes providing training for new potential partners within the Iraqi security forces and a CC-130J Hercules aircraft for tactical airlift.

“Our new defence policy has made it very clear that Canada is ready and willing to do its part for the global community,” Sajjan said in a statement.

“This includes confronting security issues that threaten our shores and those of our allies and partners. We must continue working with the Global Coalition against Daesh and to address the security challenges which confront Iraq, Syria and the region,” he added using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.

Aircraft, field hospital and special forces

Canada will also continue to contribute existing capabilities, including aerial refueling and surveillance aircraft, tactical helicopters, training, advising, and assisting Iraqi security forces, capacity building in Jordan and Lebanon, a field hospital and a contingent of special forces, and intelligence support.

The extension includes the authority to deploy up to 850 Canadian troops to the region.

This extension is expected to cost Canada about $371.4 million over two years.

Combat or advise and assist?
 A Canadian sniper team scan the landscape during an Afghan-led operation to arrest suspected Taliban operating in the Panjwayi district of southern Kandahar province, supported by Coalition forces, 28 April 2006.
A Canadian sniper team scan the landscape during an Afghan-led operation to arrest suspected Taliban operating in the Panjwayi district of southern Kandahar province, supported by Coalition forces, 28 April 2006. © JOHN D MCHUGH/AFP/Getty Image

It also comes as debate rages over whether Canada is actually involved in active combat in northern Iraq, after a Canadian special forces sniper shot an ISIS fighter from a record 3,540 metres, the longest confirmed kill shot in military history.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dismissed criticism from the opposition New Democratic Party that the record-breaking sniper shot “seriously calls into question your government’s claim that Canadian forces are not involved in direct combat in Iraq.”

Trudeau said the shot was to be celebrated, and it was “entirely consistent” with Canada’s advise and assist role.

Lifesaving shot

The record-breaking shot saved lives of Iraqi security forces, the deputy commander of Canadian special forces said Wednesday.

The shot killed one fighter and sent the rest scattering for cover, effectively breaking up a surprise attack, said Brig.-Gen. Peter Dawe.

“This attack was massing unbeknownst to our partner forces, because it was happening very quickly in a very dynamic sort of environment,” Dawe said.

“And so our team was able to engage, and not only successfully that particular enemy fighter, but pre-empt a mass attack. So that’s a significant achievement.”

On Thursday, Chief of the Defence Staff, Gen. Jonathan Vance said he is “extremely proud” of the CAF accomplishments in the region.

“As the situation on the ground evolves, we must continually re-evaluate how Canada’s military can be most effective in support of the coalition,” he said. “I am confident these additional authorities will help us be more agile and flexible as we respond to the needs of our allies and partners.”

With files from CBC News and The Canadian Press

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