Canadian special forces exchanged gunfire with Islamic State fighters in Iraq in recent days, in the first confirmed ground battle between Western troops and the extremists, a senior Canadian military officer said on Monday.
The Canadians came under mortar and machine gun fire while training Iraqi troops near front lines and shot back, killing the assailants in what Canadian Special Operations Forces commander Brigadier General Michael Rouleau described as self-defense.
Rouleau said the melee had taken place in the previous seven days and was “the first time we’ve taken fire and returned fire” in Iraq, where the extremists have overrun large areas.
“My troops had completed a planning session with senior Iraqi leaders several kilometers behind the front lines,” Rouleau told a regular news conference on the conflict. “When they moved forward to confirm the planning at the front lines in order to visualize what they had discussed over a map, they came under immediate and effective mortar and machine gun fire.”
The general said the Canadians used sniper fire to “neutralize both threats” and there were no Canadian injuries.
AIRSTRIKES
Canada sent about 600 air crew and other military personnel — as well as six fighter jets and other military aircraft — to the region in November last year to participate in US-led airstrikes.
The Canadian deployment is due to end in April, unless the nation’s parliament votes to extend the mission.
There are also 69 Canadian special forces members training and advising Iraqi troops on the ground, but theoretically not in combat.
Canadian Joint Operations Command Lieutenant General Jonathan Vance said the Islamic State “has been stopped [in Iraq] and they are unable to mount broad offensive operations that would somehow change the situation dramatically.”
However, he added “a large-scale reversal of ISIL’s [the Islamic State’s] position in Iraq has yet to come.”
Using aerial maps, he pointed out “relatively modest areas where the tide has turned and Iraqi forces are in control of the area.”
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