New Mission against ISIL won’t include sending troops to Syria: Sajjan

By: Lee Berthiaume, The Globe and Mail 

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan has ruled out sending Canadian troops into Syria as the clock ticks down on Canada’s current mission against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Military planners have been drawing up options for the next phase of the fight against ISIL, after the Trudeau government extended the current mission for another three months in March.

The hope was that the battle for the city of Mosul would be over by the new deadline on June 30, at which point the international community would have a better idea of how the next chapter was shaping up.

ISIL continues to hold out in parts of Mosul, but Sajjan said Friday that the government is looking at how the mission should change to better support the fight against the extremist group.

Yet Sajjan closed the door on sending troops into Syria, offering a clear “No” when asked if that option was on the table.

“Right now, as Canada, we’re focused on Iraq and we’ll continue that focus to make sure we reinforce some of the gains that we have made and make adjustments where it’s necessary,” he said.

That is despite the presence of several hundred U.S. troops in Syria and the fact that Canadian surveillance planes and a refuelling aircraft have flown missions over the country for the last several months.

Their efforts have fed into the larger U.S.-led bombing campaign against ISIL in both Iraq and Syria.

Canada also has about 200 special forces operating alongside Kurdish and Iraq forces in northern Iraq, including inside Mosul, as well as medical personnel and a helicopter detachment in the area.

Sajjan said Canada remains committed to the fight against ISIL and supporting Iraq, where there are fears the extremist group will go underground and resort to more traditional terror attacks after Mosul.

That will require different training and support from the international community, which to this point has been largely focused on helping Iraqi and Kurdish forces fight ISIL as a regular military force.

There are also concerns about Iraq’s political future, with several potential conflicts bubbling just beneath the surface as the threat posed by ISIL appears to be receding.

The president of Iraq’s Kurdistan region announced earlier this month that a referendum on independence will be held on Sept. 25, setting up a potentially explosive standoff with Baghdad.

Much of Canada’s military support in Iraq has gone to the Kurds.

Sajjan also said the Trudeau government continues to weigh a request from NATO to send police trainers to Afghanistan.

Sajjan: Canada Committed to Iraq for the Long-Haul; Afghanistan Training Mission a Possibility

Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press

HALIFAX — The federal government is considering a NATO request to send police trainers to Afghanistan, but Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan says Canada's military focus remains in Iraq.

"As any good allied partner does, we will look at that request," Sajjan said Monday after a news conference highlighting the Defence Department's new, 10-year defence policy, which was rolled out last week.

"Our focus right now is on our mission in Iraq and the region. We will be moving forward with that mission."

Sajjan said even though Canada continues to provide funding for development and security personnel in Afghanistan, the military mission there ended three years ago.

The conflict claimed the lives of 158 Canadian soldiers, one diplomat and one journalist between 2001 and 2014. Thousands of those who served there continue to suffer from physical or mental injuries, an issue that continues to make headlines across the country.

However, the United States and NATO are reaching out for more help in Afghanistan now that the Taliban appear to be making a comeback in the region. As well, the arrival of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has complicated matters. During the past year, the group has launched deadly attacks across the country.

As for Iraq, Sajjan says Canada remains committed to maintaining a long-term military presence in that country, but he followed up by suggesting some changes were in order.

"For Iraq ... we are in this as a reliable coalition partner, in for the long term," the minister said as he answered questions from reporters gathered at Her Majesty's Canadian Dockyard, along the west side of Halifax's sprawling harbour.

"We're going to make adjustments to the mission ... We have taken this year to review the evolution of the situation on the ground. We will be extending the mission, but we'll be making the final decision on this very shortly to outline what our contributions will be. One thing I can assure you: we will remain as a credible partner to make sure the coalition has all the right assets in place."

There are about 200 Canadian special forces soldiers deployed in northern Iraq. Though their mission is to train Kurdish fighters, they have engaged in gun battles in Iraq.

The federal government has confirmed that in March some of the special forces took part in the battle to reclaim the Iraqi city of Mosul from ISIL.

In the defence policy overhaul, Sajjan has committed to adding 605 new elite special forces commandos.

Overall, the new policy commits Canada to spending an extra $14 billion over the next 10 years on defence matters — a 70 per cent increase for the department's budget.

The money will be used to put another 5,000 troops in uniform and, among other big-ticket items, offset the skyrocketing cost of buying new warships and fighter jets.

But much of the money won't flow until after the next election, and it’s not clear whether the spending spike would mean bigger federal deficits or spending cuts in other areas.

Sajjan noted that two of Canada's new Arctic patrol ships were under construction at the nearby Halifax Shipyard, and he said his new defence policy commits the government to spending up to $60 billion on building 15 new warships, which will replace much of the Royal Canadian Navy's aging fleet.

"We are excited for the economic growth and development that this policy means for Halifax, Nova Scotia and the broader Canadian defence industry," he said. More than 14,000 Nova Scotians are employed as part of a "defence team" that spends $1.3 billion annually in the province, he said.

Sajjan said the original budget for the Canadian Surface Combatant program in 2008 was set at $26.2 billion, which the Parliamentary Budget Office later determined was enough for only six ships.

"We need 15 and we are committed to 15 ships," Sajjan said, adding that the policy also commits the government to maintaining the navy's four problem-plagued submarines and to build two new support ships.

Ottawa Appears Likely to Extend Military Mission in Iraq

By: Bruce Campion-Smith, Toronto Star

Ottawa appears likely to extend Canada’s military deployment in Iraq by several months as the fight for Mosul continues and then consider a longer-term plan for the counter-Daesh mission, the Star has learned.

The mission, which includes some 200 special forces soldiers on the ground near Erbil, plus air force crews operating reconnaissance and refuelling aircraft, was due to wrap up at the end of March.

Ottawa will consider what kind of military contribution is needed if Canada decides to recommit to the counter-Daesh coalition in Iraq. (RYAN REMIORZ /THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO)

But with Iraqi and peshmerga forces still fighting to reclaim Mosul and surrounding territory from Daesh insurgents, the federal government now seems likely to extend the mission by several months, a source told the Star. A final decision is expected shortly.

During the extension, the government will consider what kind of military contribution is needed if Canada decides to recommit to the counter-Daesh coalition.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan declined Tuesday to say what the government may do next but did say that consultations are ongoing with allies.

“That’s what we’re doing now is making sure that we’re talking to our coalition partners, looking at the situation on the ground. It is very fluid, and we just want to make sure that we have the right resources,” Sajjan told reporters on Parliament Hill.

“We will continue to look at any type of adjustments so that we are a responsible coalition partner,” he said.

The mission was originally launched by former prime minister Stephen Harper in the fall of 2014 and included deploying troops to northern Iraq in an advise-and-assist role to train peshmerga troops and dispatching an air-to-air refueller, reconnaissance aircraft and six CF-18 fighters that join in coalition bombing campaigns.

After taking power, the Liberals ended the bombings by the CF-18s but boosted the number of troops on the ground. More recently, Canada has taken over command of a military hospital in Erbil to treat casualties from the ongoing offensive launched by local forces to beat back Daesh (also known as ISIS or ISIL).

Though it’s ostensibly a non-combat mission, Canadian troops have several times engaged in firefights with Daesh insurgents to protect themselves or the Kurdish troops they are with.

Battle for Mosul will shape Canada's ground commitment in Iraq

Canadian special forces launch a mission from a base in Erbil, Iraq, on Nov. 14, 2016 (Murray Brewster/CBC)

By: Murray Brewster, CBC News 

Canada will continue to have a military mission in Iraq through 2017, but the size and scope of it have yet to be determined, the country's defence minister said in advance of an international meeting with allies battling ISIS.

Defence planners have been spinning various scenarios for months, but the Liberal government committed — when it overhauled the mission against ISIS last February — to reviewing the deployment of special forces, helicopters, surveillance planes, an air-to-air refueling jet and a military field hospital.

The assessment is due by March of next year, but the last budget numbers put before Parliament have set aside only $41 million for the operation, less than one-third of what's being spent in the current budget year.

'We need to make sure that troops we have trained are up to the level where they can hold the gains they have [made].'
- Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan

Earlier in the fall, the country's operations commander, Lt.-Gen. Steve Bowes, said the military had been given orders, but its "posture is not oriented towards" an extended mission.

Asked on Wednesday whether the military commitment would continue, Sajjan told CBC News: "Absolutely."

Iraqi security forces are still involved in the battle to retake Mosul, the country's second-largest city, from deeply entrenched ISIS fighters. Iraqi forces are being aided by Canadian and allied special forces soldiers, who are providing not only advice, but covering fire.

"We need to make sure that troops we have trained are up to the level where they can hold the gains they have [made]," Sajjan told CBC News.

Whether the Kurds and the Iraqis can effectively provide security is a fundamental question and consideration, he said.

"We entered when Iraqi security forces couldn't hold the ground and do what they are supposed to do. So, the last thing you want to do is just leave without making sure you've answered that question."
Teaching new lessons

If you listen to the Kurds, whom Canadians have been training since the fall of 2014, the answer is they need a different kind of support once Mosul has been cleared of extremists.

One of the Kurdish Peshmerga commanders taking part in the battle, Brig. Adel Rash, recently made a pitch to Canada's deputy commander of special forces for specialized training in counter-insurgency warfare.

The training Canadian special forces have provided to the Kurds thus far involves traditional combat skills, not the intelligence-driven shadow warfare that characterized the decade-long combat commitment in Afghanistan.
ANALYSIS | What happens once Mosul is recaptured from ISIS?
Canadian forces shooting first at ISIS to protect civilians, allies

Most military planners, including many at the Pentagon, expect ISIS to revert to a guerrilla war once it has been driven out of Mosul.

"We are in need of training courses," Rash said in an interview with CBC News. "ISIS activity is changing towards an insurgency and we need to be prepared. We expect Canadians to play a good role."

A CH-146 Griffon lands in a field northwest of Erbil. The helicopter detachment is a recent addition to Canada's mission in Iraq. (Murray Brewster/CBC)

Government ministers from countries taking part in the campaign to defeat ISIS will get an update on where the fight could be headed at a meeting in London on Thursday.

Sajjan was asked whether he is laying groundwork within the Liberal government for an extended mission that would involve preparing the Kurds for a guerrilla war, in much the same fashion that Canada trained Afghan forces to take on the Taliban.

He left the door open to that possibility.

"The goal is always to eliminate the threat," Sajjan said. "That is the goal, but we will have to assess, at the time, what is needed."

A liberated Mosul will need police forces, reconstruction and development to get back on its feet, and those will be major considerations in the upcoming assessment, he added.

If it is any indication, military engineers recently put the finishing touches on a semi-permanent military camp in Erbil, which houses different elements of the mission.

Major construction only started in June and some barracks just opened last month at the $3.75-million centre.

Canada Hiding Bravery of its Special Forces

By: Scott Taylor, The Chronicle Herald 

Last week, the Canadian military told reporters that our special forces operatives in northern Iraq have been involved in numerous firefights in recent weeks with the Daesh evildoers.

Iraqi Forces fire a rocket towards an ISIL fighting position. 

After photos had appeared on Facebook showing Canadian soldiers firing anti-armour missiles on the front lines, it was not surprising that DND confirmed this to be the case.

According to Maj.-Gen. Mike Rouleau, commander of the Canadian Special Operations Forces (CANSOFCOM), there have been three separate occasions wherein our soldiers engaged Daesh would-be suicide bombers with sophisticated anti-armour missile systems.

For those who have been following the now weeks-long allied offensive to recapture the Iraqi city of Mosul from Daesh, it is widely known that the evildoers have employed a multitude of suicide car bombs.

Rouleau explained: “The Kurds do not possess weapons like we have. So our three engagements with anti-armour weapon systems prevented that from happening several thousand metres before they wanted to detonate.” So far, so good. Our commandos are blasting apart the Daesh bad guys on the battlefield.

But that sounds like combat, and as we have been told repeatedly by both the former Conservative government and the current Liberal government, Canada does not have a combat mandate in Iraq.

To make the distinction clear, Rouleau stressed to reporters the fact that Canadian troops are not leading the fight, nor are they engaged in “offensive combat operations.” Digging himself in deeper, Rouleau added, “We have never accompanied any leading combat elements. My troops have not been engaged in direct combat as a fighting element in offensive combat operations.”

Huh? How can these Canadian soldiers firing anti-armour missiles not be with a leading combat element, if the only thing in front of them are the Daesh attackers? As for offensive operations, the entire push into Mosul and the recapture of its surrounding villages is one massive offensive. The Daesh suicide vehicles are desperate counterattacks to slow down the allied advance. It is a hell of a stretch of logic to push right up to the Daesh front lines and then proclaim your actions to be self-defence and, somehow, not combat.

Sticking to his guns, Rouleau tried to portray his soldiers’ actions as those of helpful bystanders who will engage Daesh with sniper fire or airstrikes to defend the Kurdish fighters they are supposed to be training. “From deliberately selected positions that maximize our utility to advancing Kurd forces, we have either defended ourselves, defended friendly forces, or defended civilians caught in the middle,” explained Rouleau.

Forgetting the fact that Rouleau’s statement of directly supporting “advancing Kurd forces” contradicts his earlier claim of having “never accompanied any leading combat elements,” it brings to mind the old axiom that if the enemy is within range of you, then you are within range of the enemy.

The crazy part of all this is that most Canadians do not care that our special forces personnel are engaged in combat with Daesh, even though they do not have a mandate to do so. The Daesh evildoers are mass murderers, rapists and perpetrators of attempted genocide. There is no doubt a sense of perverse pride among the Colonel Blimp warmongers that Canada is actively engaged in this shooting war. However, Canadian generals just can’t admit it.

I have stated repeatedly that, in my opinion, Canadian soldiers are not among the best in the world — they are the best. Our special forces operatives are undoubtedly a tremendous asset to the Kurdish forces they are supporting in battle. I am also sure that several of our soldiers have performed acts of heroism that would be worthy of medals of valour. However, due to the deliberate duplicity of our senior commanders in redefining the term combat in order to exceed their politically mandated ‘advise and assist’ role, these soldiers are not getting full credit for their service.

We can’t praise Canadian soldiers for their prowess in combat because, officially, they cannot be in combat.

Vance: Canadian Special Forces have fired first at Islamic State

By: Michelle Zilio, The Globe and Mail 

The country’s top soldier says that Canadian troops have shot first at Islamic State forces in Iraq, reopening the question of whether the military is engaged in a combat mission against the terror
group.

While government and military officials have said Canadian Forces are allowed to fire in defence in Iraq, General Jonathan Vance, chief of the defence staff, made it clear Tuesday that troops have fired first at the Islamic State. However, he said this does not mean the mission is turning from a “train, advise and assist” role into a combat one.

“The use of force by our soldiers on this operation ... has only been used in a defensive mode to ensure that our partners were not subject to an attack that they couldn’t deal with,” Gen. Vance told the House of Commons defence committee.

“If you are suggesting that our forces have been manoeuvring so as to provide offensive fire, thereby taking the fight to the enemy, then you are wrong.”

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Gen. Vance insisted Canadian troops have always been allowed to fire first in the fight against the Islamic State – something he says he has made clear throughout the mission.

“I’ve said this publicly. We do not have to be shot at first to defend ourselves,” Gen. Vance said. “I don’t think that any Canadian that’s listening out there would think that we need to be shot first before we can take defensive actions.”

For instance, Gen. Vance said that Canadian Forces would shoot first if Kurdish forces do not have the ability to defend themselves against suicide bombers, in order to protect themselves and their partners. He said he is confident Canadian troops are still operating within the parameters of the mission mandate outlined by the Liberal government.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan echoed Gen. Vance’s comments Tuesday, saying Canadian troops need to be able to defend themselves, their partners and civilians.

“When it comes to self-defence and the rules of engagement, you do not have to wait to be shot at first,” Mr. Sajjan told reporters. “The last thing you want to be able to do is put a restriction like that onto our troops.”

Last year, the Liberals campaigned on the promise to end Canada’s combat mission in Iraq. Although the government withdrew Canada’s six CF-18 fighter jets from the U.S.-led coalition in February, it ramped up the training mission by increasing the number of troops on the ground to more than 200 from 69. Canadian troops were first deployed to Iraq in October, 2014, under the previous Conservative government.

The federal government continues to insist Canada’s involvement in the coalition against the Islamic State is not a combat mission. However, the opposition parties disagree.

“The Liberal government ... continues to mislead Canadians by insisting that we are in a non-combat role,” Conservative defence critic James Bezan said during Question Period Tuesday. “Will the defence minister finally be honest, acknowledge that our troops are in combat, and apologize for misleading Canadians?”

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair said outside the House of Commons that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government have to stop “beating around the bush” and call the Iraq mission what it is.

“Mr. Trudeau promised word for word in his program to put an end to Canada’s involvement in the combat mission in Iraq. He has not done that. This is a combat mission. When you have soldiers on the front line firing first, you’re in a combat mission.”

Canadian Special Forces Engaging ISIS to protect Civilians& Allies

By: Murray Brewster, CBC News 

Canadian special forces soldiers in Iraq have occasionally opened fire without warning on Islamic State extremists in order to protect civilians and their Kurdish allies, military officials say.

They have also been deeply and routinely involved in evacuating casualties from the front in the months leading up to the offensive to liberate the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

Military officials revealed the information on Monday, saying they want the Canadian public to have a better understanding of the soldiers' mission to train and advise Peshmerga fighters.

The Liberal government has insisted the elite soldiers are not involved in combat and that they shoot back when they're attacked.

Commanders have in the past hinted about troops taking preventive action, but officials speaking on background in Iraq removed all doubt.

Related
Canadian troops watching for human rights abuses as battle for Mosul rages
Canadian special forces have been in gunfights with ISIS on front lines, general says
Anti-ISIS fight will get harder after Mosul, says Canadian general

Later during a tour of the front line in northern Iraq — coming within 15 kilometres and earshot of the raging battle in Mosul — Lt.-Col. Steven Hunter pointed to several specific incidents.

He says his troops have sometimes been the first ones to spot the enemy, and when it's clear the Peshmerga can't respond, the Canadians have shot first.

"Because they have demonstrated hostile intent, we're able, through our rules of engagement, to use our own weapons systems to engage that kind of threat," said Hunter, the commanding officer of the Canadian Special Operations Regiment.

It's happened in instances where ISIS fighters were rallying behind massive suicide bomb trucks and when civilians were being threatened.

As an illustration for one battle, Hunter used the rocky, sloping, barbwire-stitched side of Zardek Mountain, a long-time Peshmerga redoubt northeast of Erbil.

For security reasons, the accounts from the battle have been scrubbed of any details that ISIS commanders might find useful. It is impossible to corroborate the details.

The troops have helped man casualty clearing stations directly behind the front lines during Kurdish operations last summer that liberated a series of towns on the road to Mosul.

Some of the stories, told by officials, were stark.

At one station, 450 patients went through in the space of a few weeks.

Peshmerga Brig.-Gen. Weisi dismisses reports that Kurdish units have deliberately demolished Sunni Arab villages. A report by Human Rights Watch criticized the Kurds. (Murray Brewster/CBC)

Both Hunter and Brig.-Gen. Peter Dawe, the deputy commander of the entire special forces branch, praised the working relationship with the Kurds and said the trust that has been built up comes largely because Canadians were willing to share the danger.

It has also afforded them the opportunity to keep a close look on their allies.

Over the weekend, a Human Rights Watch report accused the Peshmerga of deliberately destroying Sunni villages.

Brig.-Gen. Weisi, the commander of Peshmerga forces of the district Zerevani, dismissed the allegations as being manufactured by disgruntled Sunnis.

"Of course there are some people over there who are ISIS supporters," Weisi told CBC News in an interview. "They provided information to ISIS. They worked with ISIS."

A CH-146 Griffon lands in a field northwest of Erbil. The helicopter detachment is a recent addition to Canada's mission in Iraq. (Murray Brewster/CBC)

He later suggested the village had been caught in the crossfire.

The U.S.-led coalition command released a statement, taking note of the controversy.

"We are aware of the reports, but cannot confirm the accuracy of the accounts," officials said.

The Liberal government in Ottawa has yet to formally respond.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has sought to play up Canada's humanitarian involvement in Iraq.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan announced last summer a military hospital would be deployed to Erbil for the Mosul offensive.

The four-bed facility finally opened last week after numerous customs delays in Baghdad, where the central government has been keeping a wary eye on the relationships of the independence-minded Kurds.

Unidentified doctors and a nurse work on a patient during a casualty simulation exercise. After long delays, a Canadian military hospital began operating last week in Erbil. It will treat casualties from the offensive against ISIS in Mosul. (Murray Brewster/CBC)

The officer in charge of the centre, Lt.-Col. Richard Morin, served as a doctor during the Canadian combat mission in Kandahar. Bracing for casualties from the Mosul offensive caused him to reflect.

"When you do come to these kinds of deployments you realize how lucky we are; how privileged we are to bring our skills to this kind of environment," he said.

The Liberals also approved the deployment of a tactical helicopter detachment, which is now up and running. The CH-146 Griffons are meant to transport special forces soldiers and act as backup medical lift aircraft to evacuate wounded from the battlefield.

After reshaping the mission last year and ending an aerial bombing campaign against ISIS by CF-18s, the Trudeau government has been mum on whether Canada will participate beyond next spring in the aftermath of the expected defeat of ISIS in Mosul.

Despite that, National Defence has poured $3.75 million into the construction of a semi-permanent military camp in Erbil, housing different elements of the mission.

Major construction only started in June and some barracks just opened last week.

Canadian Special Forces Watching for Human Rights Abuses in Battle of Mosul

By: Murray Brewster, CBC News 

Canadian special forces troops have been told to keep an eye out for possible human rights abuses and sectarian score-settling as the battle to liberate Iraq's second largest city from the Islamic State continues to unfold.

The assertion came on the same day a leading U.S.-based rights group accused Kurdish forces of practising a scorched earth policy — routinely destroying Arab homes, but leaving Kurdish ones intact, in areas cleared of ISIS control.

Mosul is the last ISIS stronghold in Iraq and the extremists there have been waging a deliberate campaign of terror meant to incite sectarian tensions.

A coalition of some 40,000 anti-ISIS forces is fighting for the city — a medley of fighters that includes Iraqi army units, militarized police, special forces, Kurdish troops and Iranian-backed Shia militias.

That means the campaign to evict ISIS from Mosul — which has been going on for almost a month — is being waged by uneasy allies who could quickly turn into enemies.

There's concern that the Iranian-backed Shia militias — operating west of the mostly Sunni city, with the consent of the Iraqi government — could take revenge on suspected Sunni collaborators.

Kurdish forces, whom Canadians have been training for the past two years, are also wary.

There were reports over the last week that some Sunnis who have fled the fighting were expelled from Kirkuk, a city further south, by Kurdish security, over fears they might be sleeper agents.

It is something the U.S.-led coalition has been keeping a wary eye on, Canadian officials said Sunday.

"It is a concern," said Christina Marcotte, a civilian policy adviser with the Canadian task force headquartered in Kuwait.
Canadian role to advise

"Certainly from the point of view of the government of Canada, we expect our military members who are up there right now to report any incidents. To date there have been no reports of such incidents."

It was revealed last month that Canadian troops were spending more time at the front lines as the anti-ISIS campaign shifted from defence to offence. There are approximately 200 Canadian special forces members in Iraq, mostly advising the Kurds and assisting by observing the battles and helping call in airstrikes.

The mission has been billed as "non-combat," though the government says they can shoot in self-defence.

Brig.-Gen. Shane Brennan, commander of Canada's Joint Task Force in Iraq, speaks at a media briefing Sunday at an unidentified coalition airbase in Kuwait. (Murray Brewster/CBC)

A senior Canadian representative with the multinational coalition said the Iraqi government will not tolerate the kind of sectarian blood-letting that has been a horrific feature of life in that country since the U.S. occupation.

Brig.-Gen Greg Smith, who serves as the chief of staff to the coalition land headquarters, said Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi made it clear that those committing atrocities will be held accountable under the laws of armed conflict.

"This is not a group of fighters going around waging war against the population," Smith said via video conference from Baghdad.

He paraphrased an old quote, saying the cleanliness of the war will determine the cleanliness of the peace that follows.

"In a multi-ethnic country with a lot of history, like Iraq, they're very sensitive to that in particular," Smith said.
Battle could take a long time

He wouldn't, however, speculate on how long it will take for the Iraqis and Kurds to recapture the city, which fell to the Islamic State in 2014. Coalition commanders have previously predicted the Mosul campaign could last months.

Iraqi special forces come under fire from ISIS fighters while running across an intersection Sunday as they try to push forward in the Karkukli neighbourhood of Mosul. (Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images)

The battle is slow going. In many cases, it's now going street by street, block by block.

The Kurds have made strong progress in the east and have entered the outskirts of the city. The Shia militias just recently began their push in the west.

Some analysts suggest the campaign is being held up by the inexperience of Iraqi troops, who are pushing in from the south.

The commander of the Canadian task force urged patience.

"I don't necessarily agree with the words 'held up.' What we have got underway right now is a complex battle in urban terrain," said Brig.-Gen. Shane Brennan. "In the urban battleground, everything is slow, i.e. it's close."

The Iraqis and Kurds have suffered roughly 200 dead and over 1,000 wounded in the campaign thus far — casualties that will put further strain on already frayed relationships.

On Remembrance Day, Canadians in Iraq face combat

By: GAVIN JOHN, SPECIAL TO THE TORONTO SUN

BISHAQA, IRAQ - You don’t have to go far back in history to remember a Canadian soldier fighting for freedom overseas. In fact, all you have to go back is 24 hours in Iraq.

While Canadians prepare to pay their respects this Remembrance Day to veterans who gave the ultimate sacrifice, Canadian Forces are making a meaningful impact today in the battle against the Islamic State in Iraq.

On the outskirts of Bishaqa, Iraqi Kurdish soldiers — the Peshmerga — sit around and discuss the recent operation to liberate the town. When Canada is brought up there is nothing but praise. When the actions of Canadian Special Forces is mentioned, smiles come over the faces of the soldiers. They place their hands over their hearts as a sign of gratitude.

While officially on a “consult and advise” mission, as the official statements from the Kurds and Department of National Defence both state, the Canadian Forces are more than capable of defending themselves and their allies if threatened.

The battle has been hard fought for the Kurds, with much of the town bears the sign of an enemy who fights to the end. IEDs lay open on the roads, marked only by red flags, and many of the building lie in ruin. Kurdish armoured vehicles patrol the rubble, while in the skies coalition jets circle overhead. Throughout the day, sporadic gunfire and IED explosions are reminders that this war is far from won.

Too often, Remembrance Day speaks of battles long past, against foes long defeated, and for countries long secured. Yet among the bomb-riddled streets of Iraq, Canadian courage and commitment to freedom is clearly still in action.

To the frontline soldiers today in Bishaqa, Canada is a potent ally for freedom and one they hope stays the course.

The Canadian Special Forces mission in Iraq is a thankless job. Little is shared with the public, and Ottawa refuses to comment on the exact details of their actions.

This Remembrance Day will be one that Canadians take a moment and thank the sacrifices from days past, and one that Iraqis, Kurds and Canadians can take comfort in knowing that as we speak, Canada stands beside our allies to defend their freedom half a world away.

Quagmire: Iraq could get messy for Canada

Adnan R. Khan, Maclean's 

Canadian Special Forces are in the thick of the battle around Mosul. What comes next?

The way the commander of the Canadian-trained Zeravani forces in northern Iraq describes it, the scene could have been lifted out of Mad Max. On Oct. 17, as a coalition of Iraqi army and Kurdish fighters launched the long-awaited offensive into ISIS-controlled Mosul, Iraq, Canada’s JTF2 Special Forces did what elite fighters are wont to do: they joined the fight. But according to Col. Majid—a veteran of the Zeravani, a commando unit linked to the Interior Ministry of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region—the Canadians didn’t simply roll in riding armoured vehicles alongside their Zeravani counterparts.

“They were smart,” says the 52-year old veteran soldier, clearly impressed by the Canadians’ bravado. “The six or seven of them that I saw rode in on those four-wheeled motorcycles. They were quick and mobile. They pushed forward with us. They fought the battle with us. They fired missiles and destroyed suicide vehicles.”

Over the two years that around 70 of Canada’s JTF2 Special Forces soldiers have been deployed to Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, their role has morphed from what Stephen Harper first described as a backseat “advise and assist” mission, to one in which the Liberal government has conceded Canadians would be near the frontlines but only engaging in “defensive” actions, to what today appears to be direct participation in offensive operations.

Defence Department officials in Ottawa are typically vague on the specifics. “To ensure the safety and protection of our deployed personnel, the exact details of ongoing operations will not be disclosed,” an email response to a Maclean’s query read. “Our mandate has not changed. We are there to train, advise, and assist.”

Colonel Majid, the deputy commander of the Zeravani frontline position in Khorsebat village at the Nawaran frontlines, north of Mosul. (Photograph by Adnan R. Khan)

But according to numerous interviews with Kurdish forces, conducted as Maclean’stoured the frontlines of the Mosul offensive last weekend, the Canadians played a significant role in the northern and eastern fronts led by the Kurds. The quad-riding commandos were perhaps the most dramatic example. But on other fronts near Mosul, Canadians were also in the thick of battle, helping the Kurds drive back Islamic State fighters and targeting suicide vehicles with anti-tank missiles.

The results have been impressive. Islamic State has collapsed on the fringes of its self-declared Iraqi capital. Village after village has fallen to the advancing Kurds, known as the peshmerga, paving the way for the Iraqi army to enter Mosul, which it did for the first time on Oct. 31, weeks earlier than expected.

Meanwhile, the Zeravani, which has been the main focus of Canada’s training mission in Iraq so far, has stopped its advance, digging into its positions, in some cases less than a kilometre from territory still controlled by Islamic State.

The Canadians have since pulled back as well, reverting to their advisory role. They can be seen driving around frontline positions in SUVs to consult with their Zeravani counterparts, though they refuse to speak to journalists. Unlike the U.S., Canada does not allow the media access to Special Operations soldiers. Here in Iraq, even the Zeravani joke about “Canada’s secret mission”—though there now appears to be nothing particularly secret about it.

The Canadian forward operating bases that dot the Zeravani-controlled fronts maintain the charade: concrete walls and razor wire surround the unmarked compounds. At one base, a group of soldiers, some shirtless in the 30° C heat, gather on a rooftop for some kind of meeting. A call to their translator requesting an interview produces a predictable, emphatic “no.”

It’s difficult to gauge what the danger might be, especially considering locals are perfectly aware Canadian soldiers occupy these compounds, and access to the fronts where they are located is strictly controlled by the Zeravani.

Smoke rises at Islamic State militants’ positions in the town of Naweran, near Mosul, Iraq on October 23, 2016. (Azad Lashkari/Reuters)

Back on the Zeravani frontline, despite a lull in fighting, the situation remains volatile. In Nawaran, 10 km north of Mosul’s outskirts, the Zeravani are in the process of fortifying their positions. ISIS was pushed out of this area on Oct. 20 but they have not gone far, in some places occupying villages less than a kilometre away. Armoured backhoes rumble over the reddish-brown earth, kicking up clouds of dust as they set up fresh berms and observation posts. Zeravani soldiers, mindful of Islamic State fighters nearby, lounge in the shade of concrete bomb shelters. Their nonchalance is not so much heroic as it is fatalistic: the only real danger here is mortar rounds, and mortar rounds are notoriously inaccurate. If one hits you, it is because the universe wishes it.

As if to make the point, a mortar lands with a dull thud not more than 400 m from the unfinished post, producing a telltale narrow plume of smoke. The Zeravani soldiers look on languidly. A few minutes later, a second round lands less than 200 m away. A few minutes after that, the Kurds respond with artillery fire. Then all falls silent again.

Related: Inside the mission to unite a country after ISIS

This is the back-and-forth poking and prodding that is typical to static frontlines. Earlier that morning, Col. Hussein Rashid, a deputy commander of the outpost, told Maclean’s that ISIS fighters had attempted to shift positions from a mosque in Derk village, a kilometre from his position, to a cluster of homes a few hundred metres away.

“Probably they were trying to set up a sniper position,” he surmises. “We called in an airstrike. I think we got them because there has not been any sniping today.”

The Nawaran frontline was a brutal battle, he adds, dominated by coalition airstrikes. All that is left of the nearest “liberated” village, Khorsabad, is a post-apocalyptic tangle of rubble and rebar, bristling with the booby traps that Zeravani commanders warn the retreating Islamic State fighters routinely leave behind.

While describing the battle, Hussein points out the hum of a coalition bomber circling overhead. “Out here, in the abandoned villages and open terrain, the militants are vulnerable,” he says. “Without human shields and the cover provided by buildings, any movement that reveals their positions is a death sentence.”

During the height of the offensive, it was here that Canadian Special Forces soldiers joined the battle in an armoured Humvee, Hussein adds. They also took up positions on a ridgeline overlooking the battlefield, firing mortars and directing the Zeravani forces below. “The Canadians did a lot to make sure we would win this battle,” Hussein says. “This whole area has been liberated because of their contribution.”

A few kilometres to the east, the battle was much different. The residents of Fazliya, a small town of about 6,000 nestled into the base of the ridge occupied by the Canadians, were not given the opportunity to escape before the Kurds arrived, forcing coalition bombers to avoid the kind of indiscriminate airstrikes that leveled Khorsabad.

Fazliya was left relatively intact, but its liberation was a preview of the much more difficult fight to come in Mosul, a sprawling city where an estimated 1.5 million civilians remain trapped. Unlike Khorsabad, which fell relatively quickly in the face of coalition airstrikes, Zeravani forces only managed to roll into Fazliya on Oct. 27, after a one-week siege. Locals say Islamic State fighters had retreated three days before the Zeravani arrived but the liberators took their time moving forward, fearing suicide bombers and snipers.

In the interim, Fazliya’s residents took the opportunity to cleanse themselves of all things Islamic State. Signs were torn down and the black flags of the self-declared caliphate removed. Locals raised white flags over their homes to signal to the Zeravani that it was safe to enter the town.

“The first thing I did was shave my beard,” says Ahmed, a 27-year-old former English teacher who lived through every day of the Islamic State’s 27-month long rule, providing only his first name. “Then I waited for the Kurdish forces to arrive.”

Now, not a single beard can be seen in Fazliya, a telling feature in a part of the world where Islamic conservatism is common. Many locals say they are worried about what comes next in their town. Rumours are spreading that Islamic State loyalists have also shaved their beards and melted in with the population.

Islamic State fighters are the immediate fear in this warzone, but a host of tensions dog the entire Mosul offensive. On Oct. 29, Iranian-backed Shia militias joined the fight, advancing from the west on the ISIS-held town of Tal Afar, 75 km from Mosul, in a bid to cut off supply lines to Syria. The move angered other ethnic and sectarian groups who fear the Shia will attempt to annex Mosul, a mixed city of Sunnis, Christians, Kurds and ethnic Turks. The ethnic and sectarian mix that has been Mosul’s pride for centuries now threatens to tear it apart.

But for Canadians, who have thrown in their lot with the Kurds, still bigger problems loom. The Zeravani say they are done pushing forward. A deal signed between them and Iraq’s central government stipulates that the Kurds will not participate in the fight to take Mosul city. The agreement has broad support in Iraqi Kurdistan. Eliminating Islamic State outside traditional Kurdish territory has never been the prime objective for the Kurds. Over the last two years, they have steadily expanded their territory in northern Iraq, filling the political vacuum as their forces have liberated territory occupied by ISIS. Kurds now control Kirkuk, an oil-rich city 175 km southeast of Mosul. With the help of Canada’s elite soldiers, the Kurdistan Region has ballooned to the east and south.

Helping the Kurds claim land from the Iraqi government for a future independent Kurdistan was never Ottawa’s intention, but it’s looking increasingly like this is what has happened. Col. Hussein, the Zeravani commander on the Nawaran front, says the Kurds have no plans to retreat back to Kurdistan’s official border once ISIS is defeated. “Mosul is not a Kurdish city,” he says. “It’s for Arabs. But the territory we have liberated belongs to the Kurds. God willing, it will remain with the Kurds.”

Iraq’s central government is not, of course, on the same page. Prime Minister Haider al Abadi has repeatedly warned the Kurds not to use the fight against Islamic State as an excuse to annex Iraqi territory.

The first signs of future conflict have begun to surface in Khazer, where Canada helped the Zeravani push even deeper into Iraqi territory. The advance, which launched the Mosul offensive, was fast and furious, lasting only a day and coming to a halt near Tarjala, a village nearly 10 km west of Kurdistan’s official border. From there, Iraqi Special Forces took the lead, pushing further west toward Mosul.

The meeting point of the two armies has become something of a de facto border. A few short metres are all that separate a Zeravani checkpoint from its Iraqi counterpart on the east-west road between Mosul and Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region. Villagers who have taken shelter at camps for the internally displaced in Kurdistan are given permission slips by the Zeravani to return to their liberated villages but are then, after walking a few steps, rejected by the Special Forces.

“Look,” says a captain manning the Special Forces checkpoint, who refused to provide his name, “this slip is from the Zeravani. We are Iraqi army. They have their rules; we have ours. Sometimes the rules don’t match.”

Indeed, there appear to be no clear rules for how Iraq will sort itself out once the Islamic State is eliminated, nor have the limits to Canada’s involvement in the fight been clearly identified. Defeating ISIS has underpinned Ottawa’s rationale for sending aid to the Kurds, but now that the Kurds have stopped fighting Islamic State, what comes next? The fight for Mosul itself is expected to take weeks, if not months. Canada, if its support remains firmly with the Kurds, will be spectators to that battle.

But Canada’s relationship with the Zeravani also appears to be on shaky ground. While Zeravani commanders laud the contribution Canadian soldiers made during the Mosul offensive, they criticize Canada’s failure to provide the training and materiel they were promised. “The training they gave us was nothing new,” says Ato Zebari, the deputy commander of the Zeravani forces in Khazer. “We went through it expecting they would also provide us weapons. Then they promised they would set up a commando brigade of Zeravani. They said they would equip it and train it. That never happened.”

Zebari’s gripe is not unfounded. During a visit to Khazer in April, Canadian Chief of Defence Staff Jonathan Vance spelled out a plan to transform the Zeravani into an elite fighting force with “the weapons necessary to do the job they need to do.” The goal, he added, was to have the commando force ready for the Mosul offensive. That has not happened and no one knows exactly why, largely because of the secrecy surrounding Canada’s mission.

Defence officials in Ottawa are vague about exactly how that mission will evolve beyond defeating Islamic State. But based on its response to email queries, the emphasis on supporting the Kurds has changed.

“The Government of Canada is responding to the Government of Iraq’s request for military assistance in supporting their efforts to counter the threat presented by Daesh,” officials said, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State. “We are continuing our planning efforts toward providing equipment to Iraqi Security Forces.”

The Kurds, front and centre during Vance’s April tour of the Zeravani frontlines, were not mentioned.

In the weeks and months ahead, some hard questions will need to be answered. What exactly was Canada’s goal in Iraq? Did officials know they were helping the Kurds build up an army for a future independent Kurdistan? Should that support continue post-ISIS? Canada’s elite soldiers have proven themselves on the battlefield, once again. Now it’s up to the politicians to prove it was worth it.

How Canada Is Indirectly Taking Part In The Battle For Mosul

By: Jonathan Wade, Huffington Post 

While Canada pulled its fighter aircraft from the U.S.-led coalition earlier this year, the Canadian Forces still pull its share on the ground. Providing vital support to Peshmerga fighters through "advise-and-assist" operations, Canada has boots on the ground and is actively taking part in the battle.

As a matter of fact, soldiers from the Canadian Special Operation Forces Command (CANSOFCOM) are working alongside their Kurdish counterparts against ISIL. Deemed a non-combat mission, CANSOFCOM soldiers are constantly moving near the frontline to monitor the progress of the recently-trained Peshmerga fighters.

According to brigadier-general Peter Dawe, deputy commander of CANSOFCOM, the mission on the ground has evolved from defensive to offensive operations. Due to that Canadian operator on the ground often have to exchange fire with ISIL combatants to defend themselves and their allies.

"We are more engaged on the line -- there should be no doubt about that -- and, by extension, the risk has increased to our troops simply by virtue of time spent at the line and the work we're doing now in a more dynamic and fluid environment," Brig-Gen. Dawe said.

During the last few months, Dawe confirmed no Canadian soldiers were wounded even with the recent augmentation of confrontation with ISIL fighters.

Canadian Forces' participation in the Battle of Mosul

Having conducted successful operations in the past, the Kurdish Peshmerga are now actively taking part in the battle of Mosul. That said, it is pretty obvious their Canadian advisers are also taking part in the battle. However, the Canadian soldiers are most likely playing a supporting role such as guiding U.S.-led coalition aircraft, assisting in medical evacuation and by providing a liaison between the Peshmerga and Western forces.

Recently deployed to replace the 427 Special Operations Aviation Squadron (SOAS), pilots and ground crew of the 430 Tactical Helicopter Squadron will also take part in the Battle of Mosul . Based in Valcartier, Quebec, the 430th is equipped with CH-146 Griffon helicopters and will provide reconnaissance, troops and equipment transport, and will assist in the evacuation of wounded soldiers.

Although Canada is indirectly taking part in the battle of Mosul, its contribution still remains important to the success of the operation. Adding to the ground troops and helicopters, Canada still have a CP-140 Aurora providing intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISR) and a CC-150 Polaris for refueling purposes to the U.S.-led coalition under Operation IMPACT.

Canada is also getting ready to deploy and operate a field hospital equipped with two operating rooms (OR) in the region to treat wounded allied soldiers. Our medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) helicopters will have the ability to extract the wounded soldiers to a Canadian-led field hospital, increasing interoperability between the two elements.

It is my understanding that even if the Trudeau government has been constantly stating there was no combat mission being conducted in Iraq, Canadian soldiers are still moving on the frontline. That said, as a combat veteran of Afghanistan who spent several months embedded with the Afghan National Army, I know vital it is for the success of the operation to have the CANSOFCOM operators on the frontline along the Peshmerga to show our willingness to fight alongside them. By doing so, the Canadian soldiers are earning respect and their working relationship with the Peshmerga is much better.

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Jonathan Wade is a Military and Foreign Affairs Specialist. Combat Veteran of Afghanistan. Specializing on Russia, Canada and the Arctic.

Admit it. Canadian troops in Iraq aren’t just advising. They’re fighting

By: Thomas Walkom, Toronto Star

It has always been a myth that Canada’s soldiers in Iraq don’t do combat. Now the myth is even harder to sustain.

On Thursday, a senior general acknowledged that, over the last few months, Canadian special forces operating in northern Iraq have become increasingly involved in front-line skirmishes against Daesh fighters.

Canadian special operations forces soldiers working in northern Iraq in April teach local Peshmerga soldiers in how to deal with casualties after a simulated mortar attack. The exercise was done at the Canadian base west of Erbil. (MICHELLE CLELAND / TORONTO STAR)

“The mission has changed,” said Brig.-Gen. Peter Dawe. “We are more engaged on the line … the risk has increased.”

There are roughly 200 Canadian special-forces troops operating in Iraq. Ostensibly, their role is to train Kurdish troops.

In military bureaucratese, this is known as an “advise and assist” mission, as opposed to an “advise, assist and accompany” mission — which is what Canadian soldiers did when they were supporting local troops during the Afghan War.


Both the current Liberal government and the Conservative one it replaced have gone to great lengths to assure Canadians that Iraq is not another Afghanistan. So these semantic debates over the definition of word “combat” have taken on great political meaning.

The Conservatives used to say shooting in self-defence was not real combat.

Under the Liberals, the military brass is engaging in similar linguistic contortions to avoid the dreaded word.



According to one, Canadian troops have to be the “principal combatants” to engage in combat. According to another, combat only occurs once soldiers have crossed an imaginary line on the battlefield.

But in the real world of war, the differences become blurred — particularly when the battle lines are fluid.

It’s hard to advise and assist Kurdish troops when they are going into battle, unless you accompany them.

And when you do that — whoops — sometimes you are shot at.

What can you do then but shoot back?

None of this would matter if the war against Daesh, sometimes known as ISIS, were a set-piece conflict. But it is not.

In both Iraq and Syria, the war is unnervingly complicated and factional.

Mercifully, Canada is no longer involved in bombing Syria where, with the U.S. and Russia rattling sabres at one another, even the air war has become more dangerous.

But Iraq is bad enough. Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish forces don’t trust one another. Moreover, as the Financial Times reported last week, the fissures that have always existed within these three major groups are beginning to widen.

It’s not that long ago that rival Kurdish parties in northern Iraq were involved in a murderous shooting war with one another.

When Canada’s Liberals were in opposition, their approach to the Iraq war appeared to make sense — at least in the abstract,

Party leader Justin Trudeau said then that he opposed involving Canada in a combat role but was happy to send Canadian troops to Iraq as advisers and trainers.

Once he became prime minister, Trudeau ended Canada’s role in the bombing war in Iraq and Syria to keep his no-combat promise.

But at the same time, he tripled the number of Canadian ground troops in Iraq in order to keep his training promise.

The net result has been less combat in the air and more on the ground.

And, as Dawe acknowledged last week, the risk of Canadian casualties is growing

Is this really where the Liberals want to be on this issue?

In devising the current scheme, Trudeau and his advisers were searching for that classic middle ground between what they viewed as Conservative hawks and New Democrat doves.

What they came up with, however, was a mission that poses more danger to Canadian soldiers in Iraq than anything the Conservatives ever devised.

If that’s what Canadians want, I suppose this is fine. But the least the government could do is admit that our troops there aren’t just advising. They’re fighting.





I’vewritten in the past on Bill C-246, the attempt by Toronto Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith to make badly needed reforms to animal cruelty laws.

I predicted then that his private member’s bill was doomed because of opposition from the so-called animal use lobby, such as the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters.

Alas, I was right. Bill C-246 was defeated in the Commons last week by a vote of 198 to 84. Most New Democrats voted for the bill. Most Conservatives and Liberals — including Trudeau and his cabinet — did not.

Sajjan stays mum on role of Canadian soldiers in Mosul offensive

By: Bruce Champion-Smith, Toronto Star

OTTAWA—Photos have emerged that apparently show Canadian special forces soldiers near front-line action in northern Iraq, even as Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan stays mum about their involvement in the ongoing offensive against Daesh extremists.

One photo shows Canadians in what appear to be heavily-armed Humvees. Another shows soldiers setting up a heavy anti-armour weapon atop an armoured vehicle, a Canadian flag is clearly visible on the uniform of one of them.

This photo allegedly shows Canadian special forces setting up an anti-tank weapon atop an armored vehicle east of Mosul, Iraq. Defence department officials do not comment on the ongoing operations of Canadian troops. The Star could not verify when or where the image was taken.

The Star could not independently verify the photos or when they were taken. The defence department said it does not comment on ongoing operations but did not dispute the authenticity of the pictures.

The Canadian military has become more guarded in recent months about the work of some 200 soldiers deployed in northern Iraq to help train and advise Kurdish peshmerga forces, a mission that is supposed be non-combat.

It’s believed the photos show troops operating in an area east of Mosul, where peshmerga forces have been reclaiming territory that had been held by Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL.


In a conference call with reporters Tuesday, Sajjan was asked about the photos, including one that shows Canadian soldiers setting up the heavy weapon.

Sajjan also did not question the photos, but said any weapons the Canadians have would be for their own self-defence and protection of the Kurdish peshmerga troops they are advising.

“Our troops have all the necessary equipment to be able to apply the rules of engagement if necessary,” Sajjan said, adding that their arsenal now includes anti-armour weapons.



“I want to make sure that our troops have the necessary equipment in place to mitigate any threat,” Sajjan said.

Earlier this month, Iraqi and Kurdish security forces, backed by coalition militaries, launched a long-awaited offensive against Daesh fighters holed up in Mosul.

Yet Sajjan and the military have refused to provide any details about the role Canadian forces are playing as the Kurdish forces they are mentoring try to clear territory around Mosul.

Sajjan offered few clues Tuesday during a conference call with reporters from Paris, where he had attended a meeting of nations involved in the fight against Daesh.

“In terms of their role and exactly what’s happening, for operational security and force protection reason, I can’t give you the details,” Sajjan said.

“When the time is right I will be providing details . . . but right now these are the absolute early stages of the operation,” the minister said.

“Absolutely, Canadians deserve to know how the mission is going, what our troops are doing,” he said.

In the Commons Tuesday, the Conservatives ridiculed the secrecy and questioned why Canadians are being kept in the dark.

“Images of Canadian troops operating Iraqi vehicles, sighting targets with sniper rifles, and painting targets near Mosul have emerged on social media,” Conservative MP James Bezan said.

“Why should Canadians have to learn on Twitter what our troops are doing to defeat ISIS rather than from the government,” he said.

In an interview later, Bezan, who served as parliamentary secretary to the defence minister in the previous government, accused the Liberals of hiding “behind a curtain of secrecy.”

Even allowing for security concerns, he said there is ample room for more “transparency” about military operations.

He said the photos show Canadian soldiers “painting targets”— using a laser to mark targets for air strikes by coalition aircraft.

“This is definitely part of the support for combat operations and the offensive that is taking place to liberate Mosul,” Bezan said.

“They’re right at the front line and we know that,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sajjan revealed that a Canada-led hospital — meant to be ready to treat casualties from the Mosul fight — is still not up and running.

“There was some delays from the Iraqi government side in terms of getting all the resources. . . . That has been dealt with and things are moving along,” Sajjan said.

The hospital will have two operating rooms staffed by some 50 personnel — doctors, nurses, medics and support staff. According to the armed forces, it will be able to provide triage, resuscitation and emergency surgery.

Given that the Mosul offensive is still in its early stages, Sajjan said the hospital will still be “timely and needed.”

In a statement, the defence department said the hospital should be operating within “several weeks.” In the meantime, the department said it was working with its partners to ensure that there were no gaps in medical care because of the delay.

Video Appears to Show Canadian Special Forces in Battle Against ISIL Near Mosul

By: Ben Makuch, Vice News

New video released last week shows Canadian special forces setting up a mobile anti-tank rocket atop a Kurdish armoured vehicle, in one of the clearest pictures yet showcasing Canada's role on the frontlines of the war to retake Mosul from the Islamic State.

Screen grabs of the footage, broadcast by Kurdish news station Rudaw and posted to Twitter and Instagram, show several special forces, in desert fatigues with Canadian flag patches, helping set up what appears to be an anti-tank missile launcher. A cropped version of the footage—without the Canadian soldier—appeared in a nightly newscast.

Canadian SOF (CSOR) in — Abraxas Spa (@AbraxasSpa) October 24, 2016

New video appears to clearly show  a Canadian commando sets up an ATGM atop an armoured vehicle, with the Canadian flag patch visible on his left arm. Screenshot.

In recent months, Ottawa has become cagey in giving details about special forces operations in northern Iraq, especially when it comes to the battle to retake Mosul.

Recently, military brass has admitted that their special forces have been increasingly on the front lines—but only under an 'advise and assist' mandate

But the video, which shows the special forces setting up the missile for what appears to be an offensive attack against an Islamic State position in the distance, shows just how integrated Canadian personnel are to the fight.

Other sections of the video shows the special forces peering through what seems to be a Canadian-made scope, sitting on the armoured vehicle's machine gun.

The video appears to be from the Hamdaniya region, east of Mosul, where had been held by the Islamic State until recent days, when the Iraqi and Kurdish fighters pushed the terrorist group out of several towns in the area.

When asked about the photos, Defense Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan told VICE Canada from a defense ministers meeting in Paris that while Canada has brought heavy anti-armour weaponry to Iraq, it's intended for self-defense.

"There is no secret here," Sajjan said in response. "Our troops have all the necessary equipment to be able to apply the rules of engagement, if necessary.

"I was actually very upfront from last year, when I visited the troops on the ground, that we need to bring some anti-armour capability in, where the previous government did not have this. So we brought the right resources in for our troops, in making sure that they could protect themselves, the partners they're working with, and other coalition partners as well."

A spokesperson from the Department of National Defence wouldn't comment on the Rudaw video featuring Canadian special operations forces.

"To ensure the safety and protection of our deployed personnel, the exact details of ongoing operations will not be disclosed," DND spokesperson Dan Lebouthillier told VICE Canada. "Our mandate has not changed. We are there to train, advise, and assist the Iraqi security forces and it is important at this time to let them do their work."

The covert role Canada's special operations forces play in the fight against ISIS in Iraq has been questioned in recent weeks, just as international forces ramp up an assault on Mosul. Both of Canada's elite soldier units, the Canadian Special Operations Regiment and Joint Task Force 2, are deployed in Iraq as part of the training mission.Media in Canada is particularly interested in the operations of special operations soldiers in Iraq since they were deployed in 2014, some calling for the Trudeau government to simply admit the country is serving in a combat role and directly engaging ISIS forces.

In an early October news conference, the Justin Trudeau government conceded Canadian special forces previously came under direct ISIS attack and returned fire, but that these occurrences were "sporadic in nature and have not resulted in any Canadian injuries." But in March 2015, a Canadian special forces member died in a frontline Peshmerga controlled position in what was deemed to be a friendly-fire incident.

At the same news conference earlier in the month, defence officials maintained the mission in Iraq was swiftly transforming into a more offensive engagement demanding Canadian troops travel to the frontlines with their Peshmerga counterparts. The Rudaw footage confirms just that: the Peshmerga forces on camera clearly show an entrenched frontline position, with heavy fighting and a large Kurdish force within direct sight of IS fighters.

Canada currently has 200-plus special forces stationed in Iraq advising Kurdish forces and calling in airstrikes.

What Happens After Mosul?

By: Matthew Fisher, Ottawa Citizen 

ASSOCIATED PRESS - Kurdish security forces overlook Islamic State-controlled villages east of the city of Mosul in northern Iraq, Monday. Iraqi Kurdish forces retook 200 square kilometres and a half dozen villages east of Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on the first day of a massive operation to liberate the city from the extremist group.

Territorial gains made on the first day of the battle for Mosul are a “turning point in the war against terrorism,” said Massoud Barzani, president of Iraq’s largely autonomous Kurdish region.THE

Iraqi Kurdish forces retook 200 square kilometres and a half dozen villages east of Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on the first day of a massive operation to liberate the city.

Iraqi, Kurdish, U.S. and Canadian generals in Iraq are all predicting victory against ISIL, the most reviled terrorist group of modern times. However, they warn after quick initial gains in open terrain and villages on the outskirts of what was once the country’s second largest city, the battle will likely become a ferocious slog across an urban maze of tunnels, booby-traps, suicide bombers and well-hidden snipers.

“There were less than 10 Daesh in the village,” said Kurdish peshmerga commander, Lt. Mehsen Gardi using the Arabic acronym for ISIL after liberating the village of Shakouli. “But they were running around like rats in and out of tunnels and surprising us with suicide attacks and snipers.”

Left unsaid, although hinted at, is worry over what will happen once Mosul falls.

The biggest elephant in the room is Kurdish independence, but tensions could surface quickly if ISIL’s resistance suddenly collapses, and fighters try to flee across the desert to Syria, where its other redoubt, Raqqa, is besieged by Russian and Syrian forces and coalition warplanes.

Canada’s top general, Jonathan Vance met other coalition military chiefs in Washington Monday to discuss how to fight ISIL and other malevolent forces, such as al-Qaida and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra).

The 30,000-strong force attacking Mosul, which includes about 4,000 Kurds, is thought to outnumber the jihadists six to one.

Among the competing interests are members of the Kurdish peshmerga, who are itching to seize more land for what they hope will be a Kurdish state. Another possibility is the territory that evolves north and east of Mosul is so autonomous, it will be independent in everything but name.

Shia militias want into Mosul to exact revenge on the estimated one million Sunnis who stayed on and, in many cases, initially supported fellow Sunnis in ISIL because they did not like the Shia-led government in Baghdad.

But ISIL’s draconian interpretation of Shariah law eventually became too much for them and an underground resistance evolved that has been fighting back against the jihadists. They do not want the peshmerga and the Shia militias to enter the city, let alone govern them.

The Iraqi government — and its forces, who ran away rather than fight for Mosul in June 2014 — wants to restore its battered prestige and the status quo, with Baghdad in charge. More than anything, they do not want the Kurds to gain any advantage.

Mosul’s large Christian minority, now mostly scattered across Kurdistan, simply wants to be able to return home in peace, as do the Yazidis, whose women were forced en masse to become sex slaves.

As always in Iraq, complicating everything is who gets to tap the rich oilfields surrounding Mosul.

Before then, there is a war to be won. And then, according to the United Nations and many aid agencies, another humanitarian crisis looms, with hundreds of thousands of newly displaced people fleeing east and north.

Lise Grande, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Iraq, said in a worst-case scenario, some 700,000 civilians would require shelter.

Canadians will wonder what the 200 members of the Armed Forces, who have been advising the Kurds, will be doing. Some will accompany Kurdish units as they advance. How far forward and to what purpose is not clear, but commanders have said their orders do not include entering Mosul.

The Canadians’ rules of engagement allow them to defend themselves. It was confirmed in Ottawa this month that some advisers have been going forward more often and have been in gunfights.


Two generals are among about 30 Canadians based in Baghdad. They have been providing high-level advice to Iraqi commanders and supervising the training of some of the Iraqi troops now involved in the assault on Mosul.

Although it has not been heavily advertised, two Canadian Aurora spy planes, based in Kuwait and often operating near Mosul, have been providing specific bomb targeting information for coalition aircrews. The crews receive their orders from commanders who base their decisions partly on the work of a Canadian intelligence cell that studies ISIL’s whereabouts and its vulnerabilities.

Once Mosul is conquered, all eyes will turn to the fight against the jihadists in Syria, which has become extremely complicated because Russia is there with troops, warplanes and warships and supports Bashar Assad’s regime, which is as almost as repulsive to western leaders as ISIL.

The Trudeau government was the only coalition country to withdraw its fighter jets from the air war over Iraq and Syria. However, a Canadian refuelling tanker is still in the region to top up coalition warplanes attacking ISIL in Iraq.

Canada will likely face pressure from allies to rejoin the fight against ISIL’s caliphate in Syria, which is every bit as evil as the pernicious Iraqi variant. Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion has not said much on the issue except to note Canada is in favour of peace there.

Liberals under fire for Iraq Mission Secrecy

By: Lee Berthiaume, The Ottawa Citizen

OTTAWA • The Liberal government is under fire for a lack of transparency around Canada’s mission in Iraq, which entered a critical stage this week with the attack on Mosul.

Conservative defence critic James Bezan honed in on the issue during a news conference on Parliament Hill on Tuesday, saying the military held more briefings and provided more information while the Tories were in power.

National Defence provided 12 technical briefings on what Canadian troops were doing in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during the first year of the mission, which coincided with the Conservative government’s last year in office.

Those updates included specific details, such as the number of troops on the ground in northern Iraq as well as how many times those soldiers had called in airstrikes and engaged in firefights with ISIL forces.

Yet briefings largely dried up during the mission’s second year, which is when the Liberals were in office. The most recent, held two weeks ago, was only the third since the Liberals were elected last October.

A senior military officer revealed during that briefing that Canadian troops have been spending more time on the front lines, and engaged in “sporadic” firefights with ISIL during the spring and summer.

But he refused to say how many firefights Canadians have been in or how many Canadian soldiers are on the ground — even though that figure was already included in public documents tabled in the House of Commons at the end of September.

THERE IS STILL INFORMATION AFTER A BATTLE’S TAKEN PLACE THAT CAN BE SHARED.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan defended the tightened grip on information, saying it was necessary to protect Canadian troops and the operation to free Mosul, which has been billed as the most important battle to date in the fight against ISIL.

“It was actually around Mosul, everything that we did,” he said of Canadian activities over the past few months. “If it was in a different location, it’d be a different story. I have to trust in the military when it comes to the type of information that’s provided.”

Bezan said operational security is essential, “but there is still information after a battle’s taken place that can be shared with Canadians to inform us on exactly what is happening in the battle for Mosul.” The government owes it to parliamentarians, Canadians and the soldiers’ families to be more open, he added.

Canada has more than 170 special forces troops working with and assisting the Kurds in northern Iraq.

Their mission has been billed as non-combat, though the government says they can shoot in self-defence. Military officials say they have also shot to defend allied forces and, in some cases, civilians.

But some critics have accused the Liberals of tailoring the definition of combat to fit with promises made during last year’s election campaign.

Defence analyst David Perry of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute said he didn’t think the current mission constituted combat, “but the things people were construing as combat are happening more often.”

Perry said there has been a clear shift under the Liberals in terms of transparency.

“The Harper government last winter got very liberal in discussing special operations forces activities, because the past practice was effectively to say almost nothing. And they got verbose,” he said. “So this government has kind of turned it back towards the norm.”

Canada in Iraq: At war by any other name ...

By: Michael Den Tandt, National Post 

As the pivotal battle of the war with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant begins, Canada is deeply implicated, with about 600 soldiers deployed in four countries, more than a quarter of those in ground combat. You wouldn’t know it though, unless you dug around. There is no stream of independent dispatches from embedded reporters, as was the rule during the 2002-14 Afghan campaign because there is no embed program. And the Defence Department has been exceptionally stingy with information. “Operational security” is a handy excuse. It doesn’t justify the level of secrecy.

There will be quibbling, as is customary whenever Canada fields soldiers carrying loaded firearms, about whether the troops “advising and assisting” Kurdish forces in northern Iraq are actually in combat. It may be in the Liberal government’s political interest to assert that, although Canadians have exchanged fire with the enemy — we don’t know how often, that’s a secret — these have been “defensive” actions only. The truth is much simpler, as it has been since the Conservative government launched the mission in 2014: Canada is at war. That’s what it means to provide intelligence, targeting for airstrikes, refuelling, aerial surveillance and leadership on the ground, at the front. To call it anything else is dishonest. It’s also a great disservice to the soldiers risking life and limb.

THE TRUTH IS MUCH SIMPLER ... CANADA IS AT WAR.

If we acknowledge that Canada is at war — and, reading between the lines of recent remarks from Brig.-Gen. Peter Dawe and an “update” Monday from Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, this conclusion is inevitable — then certain other conclusions also become inevitable. The first is that the Liberals either did not know, or knew and did not care, when they promised last year to remove Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 jets from “combat” in Iraq and Syria, that this would soon prove to be an empty gesture.

The campaign pledge to end Canada’s role in coalition bombardment of ISIL positions — based on the specious notion that bombing was somehow more aggressive or combative than, say, refuelling or targeting — did not withstand scrutiny from the get-go.

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to replace the CF-18s with a more robust ground training mission, it was pointed out that ground training was both more dangerous than flying bombing runs and no less combative, given the nature of modern war. Humanitarian work and training require force protection; force protection requires intelligence; intelligence applied requires pre-emptive action, which sometimes mean bombing.


In an integrated command, such as the coalition against ISIL is, there is no distinction between the left hand and the right. They work together.

There can be no effective training of ground troops in a shooting war without accompanying those troops into combat, a point made during the election campaign. This was a central lesson of the Afghan war. Canadian trainers in Kandahar found they needed to join Afghan trainees on the battlefield to be credible. Trainers from other nations, who stayed mostly behind the wire and out of harm’s way, got little traction, Afghan contacts told me at the time.

Perhaps because it made so little sense upon examination, the vow to pull the CF-18s was not popular with most Canadians, polls indicated in 2015. But it did have an obvious political benefit: it helped make a vote for the Grits more palatable to the more pacifist-minded New Democratic Party voters who were the Liberals’ main strategic target in Campaign 2015.

The CF-18 withdrawal reflected Trudeau’s genuine desire to keep Canada at some remove from a conflict that had, after all, begun with president George W. Bush’s catastrophic decision to pre-emptively invade Iraq in 2003. Likewise the “whole-of-government” approach to Iraq introduced in February, including a boost in of humanitarian assistance and a tripling of the special forces contingent, was in keeping with the PM’s desire for Canada to have lasting impact on the ground, rather than “just bombing.”

The arguments that there is no such thing as “just bombing” in modern warfare, as applied by the U.S.led coalition in Iraq and Syria, that bombing is precisely targeted, and that it protects allies on the ground, fell on deaf ears. Last winter, when the Liberals could have changed course and left the fighters in place, they chose not to, the political imperative of keeping this signature promise apparently outweighing military considerations, frank speech and common sense.

Yet now Canada is at war outside Mosul, with soldiers on the front lines of what appears to be ISIL’s last stand as a wannabe state with its own territory — and, thanks to the lack of independent reports from the scene, something that can only be done with relative security through an embed program, we know next to nothing about it, beyond the scraps of mission data parcelled out on a Defence website.

Transparent and accountable? No. This is neither.

Canadian Special Forces providing crucial support in Battle of Mosul

By: Steven Chase, Globe and Mail 

Canadian Armed Forces members are playing a modest but vital supporting role as the operation to retake Mosul, the last major stronghold of Islamic State militants in Iraq, gets under way.

How dangerous it might get for Canada’s special forces soldiers will depend on whether the Kurdish troops they’re advising are assigned a difficult role in reclaiming Mosul, which has been occupied by the Islamic State jihadis since June, 2014. It will also depend on whether their political masters in Ottawa allow Canadian soldiers to enter Mosul during what could be difficult block-by-block urban warfare.

Up to 210 Canadian special forces troops are advising Kurdish peshmerga fighters who are teaming up with Iraqi government forces, Sunni tribal fighters and Shia militias to encircle and take Mosul. The Trudeau government, which promised in the 2015 election campaign to end a combat role in Iraq, insists what soldiers are doing there is not combat even though Canadian special forces soldiers are guiding the Kurds from the front lines and exchanging fire with enemy troops from time to time.

Related:
Explainer: A guide to the battle of Mosul, and why it matters in the war against Islamic State
Interactive: Untangling the Middle East: A guide to the region's shifting relationships

Right now, Canadian military advisers are with Kurdish unit commanders near the battlefront or in peshmerga encampments around Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan which is 85 kilometres from Mosul, or farther south in Kirkuk, 175 kilometres from the IS stronghold.

Canadian generals last week warned the public that the environment in Iraq has grown more dangerous for Canada’s soldiers as their task now focuses on advising the Kurds in battle rather than merely training them in open-air classrooms far back from the conflict.

Overhead, two Canadian spy planes, the CP-140 Auroras, are gathering intelligence that will be used by coalition planners to generate lists of Islamic State targets to be bombed. As well, the Royal Canadian Air Force’s Polaris tanker is refuelling coalition warplanes conducting the bombing raids.

Not far from the front line – but not so close as to be in harm’s way – up to 60 Canadians will be operating a field hospital to treat the wounded Kurds, Iraqi government forces or their allies. The Role 2 facility will not be big but will triage, resuscitate, treat and care for injured soldiers until they return to duty or are evacuated.

Ottawa is tight-lipped on the role that Canada’s 21st Electronic Warfare Regiment is playing in Iraq. The military has reportedly deployed members of this regiment, which can intercept and decipher enemy communications.

Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan was tight-lipped Monday when asked exactly where Canada’s soldiers are located on the battlefield, citing operational security.

“For force protection, I won’t tell you exactly where they will be, but they will be always in an advise-and-assist mission. They will always be within [or] behind the front lines to conduct their work and … they will always have the right tools and abilities to be able to protect themselves if needed.”

The fight to retake Mosul is being billed as the largest military effort in Iraq since the United States withdrew its combat forces in 2011.

David Perry, a senior analyst with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, said Canadians are also helping to assemble targeting “packages” for air commanders who are selecting bombing targets.

He said it’s possible the fight to retake Mosul could end up going relatively slowly because the coalition will be trying to avoid killing civilians inside the city. Mr. Perry said estimates of civilians inside Mosul are as high as one million people.

A U.S.-led air campaign has helped push Islamic State from much of the territory it held, but 4,000 to 8,000 fighters are thought to remain in Mosul.