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Boom: Canadian troops and ISIS exchange fire in first confirmed ground battle in Iraq
Hotair ^ | 01/19/2015 | NOAH ROTHMAN

Posted on 01/19/2015 4:55:19 PM PST by SeekAndFind

It was only a matter of time before Western soldiers serving as advisors to Iraqi troops began to take on a role more closely resembling conventional ground forces. Any soldier or journalist who has served as a combat advisor or alongside one knows that, when the gunfire starts, the distinctions between advisor and combatant quickly blurs. That blurring has begun.

On Monday, a Canadian brigadier general confirmed to reporters that Canadian troops were recently engaged by forces loyal to the Islamic State in Iraq and they returned fire.

Via The Lebanon Daily Star:

Canadian special forces exchanged gunfire with Islamic State fighters in Iraq in recent days, in the first confirmed ground battles between Western troops and IS, a briefing heard Monday.

“My troops had completed a planning session with senior Iraqi leaders several kilometers behind the front lines,” Brigadier General Michael Rouleau said.

“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 gunfire.”

It is only a matter of time before American troops stationed in dangerous theaters of combat operations in Iraq like Anbar province are forced to shed their advisory capacity and engage in direct combat with ISIS.

And when the shooting starts, it will likely start in Iraq’s Sunni-dominated Anbar province. U.S. soldiers guarding an Iraqi military base in Anbar are coming under frequent mortar fire from ISIS positions and, while the attacks have caused no injuries yet, that luck can only hold for so long.

“The 300 US soldiers and Marines at al Asad air base in Iraq’s Anbar province continue to see mortar fire directed at their positions, with six more mortar rounds landing on the sprawling complex last week,” read a report via Gannett’s Defense News last Wednesday. “A Pentagon spokesman confirmed the incoming fire, but said that the closest rounds landed about a kilometer away, noting that the base is roughly the size of the city of Boulder, Colorado.”

“About 320 troops — mostly US Marines — started working with Iraqi army units in recent days at the sprawling al-Asad base, which officials insisted was facing no imminent threat from the IS militants,” AFP reported in early January. “US warplanes have carried out a steady stream of air raids near the Asad base against the IS militants, who have gained a firm foothold in the west.”

Approximately 2,200 American troops are presently on the ground in Iraq serving as advisors to Iraqi and Kurdish forces in Iraq, with nearly 1,000 more American soldiers slated to join in the mission later this month.


TOPICS: Canada; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: bootsontheground; canada; iraq; isis

1 posted on 01/19/2015 4:55:19 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Oooh, Seth Rogen isn’t going to like his fellow Canucks fighting the bad guys.


2 posted on 01/19/2015 4:56:28 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: SeekAndFind

Boots on the ground.


3 posted on 01/19/2015 4:59:07 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Go you Canucks! Kick some A!!!


4 posted on 01/19/2015 4:59:11 PM PST by Migraine (Diversity is great -- until it happens to YOU.)
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To: SeekAndFind
“The 300 US soldiers and Marines at al Asad air base in Iraq’s Anbar province continue to see mortar fire directed at their positions, with six more mortar rounds landing on the sprawling complex last week,” read a report via Gannett’s Defense News last Wednesday. “A Pentagon spokesman confirmed the incoming fire, but said that the closest rounds landed about a kilometer away, noting that the base is roughly the size of the city of Boulder, Colorado.”

I'm confused by this. Did the rounds land on the base but a kilometer away from the US troops on the base? Or did the "incoming" rounds miss the entire base by a click?

To me it seems if you're getting missed by a km you're probably not the target, or you have an extremely inept and poorly trained foe.

5 posted on 01/19/2015 5:02:46 PM PST by ThunderSleeps (Stop obarma now! Stop the hussein - insane agenda!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Its a good think Obama got us out of Iraq....


6 posted on 01/19/2015 5:06:30 PM PST by PGR88
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To: SeekAndFind

It was only a matter of time before Western soldiers serving as advisors to Iraqi troops began to take on a role more closely resembling conventional ground forces.

***
Could that be because the Western soldiers’ protégées are worthless as soldiers?


7 posted on 01/19/2015 6:43:07 PM PST by Bigg Red (Congress, do your duty and repo his pen and his phone.)
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To: Bigg Red
It was only a matter of time before Western soldiers serving as advisors to Iraqi troops began to take on a role more closely resembling conventional ground forces.

We saw this movie about 50 years ago, in Vietnam.

8 posted on 01/19/2015 6:45:35 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: SeekAndFind

Air attacks by Indiana ANG A-10s apparently don’t count


9 posted on 01/19/2015 7:11:38 PM PST by ExNewsExSpook
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To: ExNewsExSpook

‘Welcome to the party!’ Canada! Good to have you fighting with us again!


10 posted on 01/19/2015 7:39:56 PM PST by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll Onward! Ride to the sound of the guns!)
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To: Migraine; SeekAndFind
Go you Canucks! Kick some A!!!

Well said, if a little direct. Gives me a chance to hold forth on the Canadian Press. Scared stiff of insulting our Canadian troops, they keep sniping away at the Canadian Prime Minister. He said he would not have the troops in a shooting war, they wheedled.

The Canadians are in the position they were in the Serb/Croation conflict of 1993. They were peacekeepers. The Serbs were pictured as the evil ones by the press. This in both the USA and Canada. The Croats had wiped out two Serb villages. The Canadians were supposed to go through Ottawa to ask permission to defend the Serbs. The Commander of the Light Infantry Regiment took the initiative. Firefight at the Medak Pocket.

It was hushed up until 2002 when the medals were handed out. Saving the helpless Serbs was not on the news agenda in 1993.

Excuse the ramble. but much of the press does not approve of hard hitting military action. God Speed Canada, says I.

11 posted on 01/19/2015 7:40:23 PM PST by Peter Libra
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To: SeekAndFind; Clive; exg; Alberta's Child; albertabound; AntiKev; backhoe; Byron_the_Aussie; ...
To all- please ping me to Canadian topics.

Canada Ping!

12 posted on 01/19/2015 7:58:04 PM PST by Squawk 8888 (Will steal your comments & post them on Twitter)
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To: Peter Libra

Specifically 2nd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. That parade when they handed out medals sucked. Colonel Mike Day was good, but we had the governor general up there speaking and we could not stand her.

To be clear, we never were peacekeepers, that is just a media term that never applied to us.

2nd Battalion, 2nd to none! 2VP forever heh.


13 posted on 01/20/2015 3:55:50 AM PST by Bulwyf
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To: dfwgator

Amen.


14 posted on 01/20/2015 7:48:27 AM PST by Bigg Red (Congress, do your duty and repo his pen and his phone.)
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To: Bulwyf
Thank you for the clarification of the real reason for Canadian involvement. Just one more thing and it may be my view only.

Evan Solomon interviewed a government representative. This when the news broke of the recent firefight. He had that slight agitation in his voice. Seeming to try to denigrate the integrity of Prime Minister Harper. One could ask what are troops who are advisors supposed to do when fired on? Maybe just me though.

15 posted on 01/20/2015 9:36:00 AM PST by Peter Libra
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