Canadian troops shot back in firefight with ISIS in Iraq

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

Murray Brewster The Canadian PressCanadian troops exchanged fire with Islamic State extremists during a recent battlefield planning exercise in Iraq, the military revealed on Monday.

It also acknowledged its soldiers have helped Kurdish forces by directing coalition air strikes.

The officer in charge of the elite special forces, which has been advising local forces in northern Iraq since September, denied that these events represent an escalation of Canada’s involvement.

“The situation is a lot more nuanced than just saying, if you exchange fire with a belligerent force then all of sudden it’s a combat mission,” said Brig.-Gen. Michael Rouleau, commander of special operations command.

War Ready! Canadian CF-18s strike fighter positions in Iraq

Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 Hornets depart after refueling with a KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to the 340th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron, Thursday, Â Oct. 30, 2014, over Iraq. Two Canadian fighter jets spent New Year's Eve bombing militants' positions in Iraq as part of a international airstrike campaign. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-U.S. Air Force Photo by Staff Sgt. Perry Aston

The Canadian Press
Two Canadian fighter jets spent New Year’s Eve bombing militants’ positions in Iraq as part of a international airstrike campaign.

The Defence Department says that on Dec. 31, the two CF-18s struck ISIL fighting positions using precision-guided munitions.

The planes were acting in support of Iraqi security forces’ group operations west of Fallujah.

According to information posted by the American and Australian governments, the targets hit in that area were tactical units belong to the Islamic State.

Iraq TV show makes ISIS terrorist confront victims

In this photo taken Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014, Haider Ali Motar, right, performs a scene from "In the Grip of the Law," a reality show produced by Iraqi state TV, as a TV cameraman moves his position in Baghdad, Iraq. Hadi Mizban/AP

Vivian Salama The Associated PressHaider Ali Motar was convicted of terrorism charges about a month ago for helping to carry out a string of Baghdad car bombings on behalf of the Islamic State extremist group. Now, the 21-year old is a reluctant cast member in a popular reality TV show.

“In the Grip of the Law,” brings convicted terrorists face-to-face with victims in surreal encounters and celebrates the country’s beleaguered security forces. The show, produced by state-run Iraqiyya TV, is among dozens of programs, cartoons and musical public service announcements aimed at shoring up support for the troops after their humiliating defeat last summer at the hands of the Islamic State group, which now controls about a third of the country.

On a chilly, overcast day last week, the crew arrived at the scene of one of the attacks for which Motar was convicted, with a heavily armed escort in eight military pick-up trucks and Humvees. Passing cars clogged the road to watch the drama unfold, but were quickly shooed away by soldiers.

Canadian CF-18s hit more ISIS targets in Iraq

CF-18s have struck against more Islamic State targets in Iraq. | The Canadian Press 

The Canadian Press
Canadian warplanes have conducted another attack on Islamic State forces.

Two CF-18s Hornets bombed an extremist fighting position about 250 kilometres southwest of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city.

National Defence reports the attack, which happened Wednesday, was carried out with laser-guide munitions and a Canadian C-140 Aurora surveillance plane provided intelligence and reconnaissance support.

Over 114 sorties have been carried out since the fighter jets deployed to Kuwait in support of the U.S.-led coalition.

Last week, Canadian jets supporting Iraqi security forces north-east of Mosul also dropped bombs on Islamic State bunkers and two heavy machine gun emplacements.

Iraqi Military Recapture Oil Refinery From ISIS

In this Monday, Oct. 6, 2003 file photo, an abandoned watchtower and lines of barbed wire are seen surrounding Iraq's largest oil refinery as smoke rises from a petroleum gas flare, in the city of Beiji, north of Baghdad. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, File) 

 | HAMZA HENDAWI and JOHN HEILPRIN

Iraqi forces drove Islamic State militants out of the strategic oil refinery town of Beiji on Friday, handing a major defeat to the extremist group, which a U.N. panel said has denied food and medicine to hundreds of thousands of people and hidden its fighters among civilians since the start of a U.S.-led air campaign.

The recapture of Beiji is the latest in a series of setbacks for the jihadi group, which has lost hundreds of fighters to airstrikes in a stalled advance on the Syrian town of Kobani and whose leader was reportedly wounded in an airstrike earlier this month.

But as it has struggled to maintain momentum on the battlefield, it has redoubled efforts to present itself as a new Islamic caliphate, with plans to launch its own currency in the vast swaths of Syria and Iraq that are still under its control.

Two Iraqi security officials said government forces backed by allied militiamen captured the town of Beiji and lifted a months-long Islamic State siege on the refinery itself -- Iraq's largest -- hoisting the country's red, white and black flags atop the sprawling complex.

Reached by telephone in Beiji, they said the army used loudspeakers to warn the small number of residents still holed up in the town to stay indoors while bomb squads cleared booby-trapped houses and detonated roadside bombs.