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.
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.”
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