How Canadian special forces helped stop a massive ISIS offensive

[Locutus]

Exclusive interviews granted to the Toronto Star and CTV News reveal never-told details of how Canadian special forces helped turn back one of ISIS’s largest offensives.

ERBIL, IRAQ—It’s fitting that the schoolhouse looks like a small fortress.

For two days in December, this was where Canadian special operations forces helped local Kurdish fighters repel a brazen offensive by Daesh, also known as ISIS and ISIL.

In the history of Canadian special operations forces, few stories have been told. But the Star is able to tell this one through interviews with senior Canadian, American and Kurdish commanders, adding new details to what Defence officials had previously disclosed.

The revelations provide a reality check on the threats facing Canadian soldiers in a mission that, while billed as “noncombat” by politicians and commanders alike, still involves engagements with a dangerous and determined enemy.

In this case, hundreds of Daesh fighters burst through a Kurdish peshmerga line one afternoon using vehicle-borne bombs, suicide attacks and an armoured bulldozer.

Cue the Canadians.

The attack began at 4 p.m. on Dec. 16 west of Erbil.

Article Continued Below

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada...es-helped-stop-a-massive-daesh-offensive.html

 

[Angstrom]

Woot!!

 

[darkbeaver]

Highly unlikely invention.

 

[bill barilko]

Highly unlikely invention.

You don't like the White Man to the Rescue story line?!

 

[darkbeaver]

You don't like the White Man to the Rescue story line?!

You got the whole essence of the story right there Bill. Canada fully supports the Assad step down and Iraqis compliance with "democratic" directives both of which have cost at least seven hundred thousand mideastern lives. They're are mercenaries, we pay the and train them why would we kill them? They work for us.

 

[Mowich]

Exclusive interviews granted to the Toronto Star and CTV News reveal never-told details of how Canadian special forces helped turn back one of ISIS’s largest offensives.

ERBIL, IRAQ—It’s fitting that the schoolhouse looks like a small fortress.

For two days in December, this was where Canadian special operations forces helped local Kurdish fighters repel a brazen offensive by Daesh, also known as ISIS and ISIL.

In the history of Canadian special operations forces, few stories have been told. But the Star is able to tell this one through interviews with senior Canadian, American and Kurdish commanders, adding new details to what Defence officials had previously disclosed.

The revelations provide a reality check on the threats facing Canadian soldiers in a mission that, while billed as “noncombat” by politicians and commanders alike, still involves engagements with a dangerous and determined enemy.

In this case, hundreds of Daesh fighters burst through a Kurdish peshmerga line one afternoon using vehicle-borne bombs, suicide attacks and an armoured bulldozer.

Cue the Canadians.

The attack began at 4 p.m. on Dec. 16 west of Erbil.

Article Continued Below

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada...es-helped-stop-a-massive-daesh-offensive.html

As long as they are called 'non-combatants' the government does not have to pay the higher wages that combatants are paid.

 

[Curious Cdn]

As long as they are called 'non-combatants' the government does not have to pay the higher wages that combatants are paid.

They had better not play that game. If they are, let's get it splashed all over the newspapers.

 

[Mowich]

They had better not play that game. If they are, let's get it splashed all over the newspapers.

Good luck with that CC.

 

[Curious Cdn]

Good luck with that CC.

It's the least that we could do. I sincerely doubt that they are not receiving combat pay. They are on one of the most dangerous deployments since Korea ... right up there with Afghanistan and one Canadian soldier has already died on it.

 

[darkbeaver]

The only thing we can splash over a Canadian newspaper is bird shjt, it follows that mandate at least. Journalism has been largely exterminated or driven underground. It happened about five hundred years ago.

Every real journalist believes the obvious truth of conspiracy and speaks to it.

 

[B00Mer]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcXiD32Mnuc

 

[Curious Cdn]

The only thing we can splash over a Canadian newspaper is bird shjt, it follows that mandate at least. Journalism has been largely exterminated or driven underground. It happened about five hundred years ago.

Every real journalist believes the obvious truth of conspiracy and speaks to it.

Well!, tell me? Are our special forces soldiers being stiffed because we are not in a declared war? ... in a combat role? We haven't been in a declared war since 1945! If there are live rounds in the breech and the rules of engagement allow you to shoot back, you are in a combat role.

That must be wrong.

 

[Mowich]

It's the least that we could do. I sincerely doubt that they are not receiving combat pay. They are on one of the most dangerous deployments since Korea ... right up there with Afghanistan and one Canadian soldier has already died on it.

I just wrote my MP to see if she can give me a definitive answer, CC. I heard this from a reliable friend who was watching a CBC documentary about the role of our troops.

Well!, tell me? Are our special forces soldiers being stiffed because we are not in a declared war? ... in a combat role? We haven't been in a declared war since 1945! If there are live rounds in the breech and the rules of engagement allow you to shoot back, you are in a combat role.

That must be wrong.

I don't know anything about the undeclared war making a difference in pay, CC. Of course there are live rounds they are on the front lines with their trainees. Even the current government wouldn't be stupid enough to put them up there without the ability to defend themselves. From what I gathered from my friend it is a matter of semantics. Call them one thing and they get this level of pay, call them another and they get a different level.

 

[Curious Cdn]

I just wrote my MP to see if she can give me a definitive answer, CC. I heard this from a reliable friend who was watching a CBC documentary about the role of our troops.

Perhaps, someone currently serving can give us a hint without breaking the Official Secrets Act.

 

[Mowich]

Perhaps, someone currently serving can give us a hint without breaking the Official Secrets Act.

Could be wrong but what the government is paying our Armed Forces does not fall under the OSA.

 

[darkbeaver]

Well!, tell me? Are our special forces soldiers being stiffed because we are not in a declared war? ... in a combat role? We haven't been in a declared war since 1945! If there are live rounds in the breech and the rules of engagement allow you to shoot back, you are in a combat role.

That must be wrong.

I'd like to add something to your enlightenment but I can't, seems it is classified or sumthin. Maybe the term we want is plausable deniability, the oldtalk , I don't know the newspeak term. I would think that if you're holding a rifle or a club and being shot at you are in a combat situation under the direction of your superiors and entitled to the combat rate. There are several good books about mutiny.

I just wrote my MP to see if she can give me a definitive answer, CC. I heard this from a reliable friend who was watching a CBC documentary about the role of our troops.


I don't know anything about the undeclared war making a difference in pay, CC. Of course there are live rounds they are on the front lines with their trainees. Even the current government wouldn't be stupid enough to put them up there without the ability to defend themselves. From what I gathered from my friend it is a matter of semantics. Call them one thing and they get this level of pay, call them another and they get a different level.

If they're at the front there's no trainees , they're on the team and following the batting order, I would guess. I'm not a soldier though.

 

[Mowich]

I would think that if you're holding a rifle or a club and being shot at you are in a combat situation under the direction of your superiors and entitled to the combat rate.

One would think.

If they're at the front there's no trainees , they're on the team and following the batting order, I would guess. I'm not a soldier though.

"The revelations provide a reality check on the threats facing Canadian soldiers in a mission that, while billed as “noncombat” by politicians and commanders alike, still involves engagements with a dangerous and determined enemy."

 

[darkbeaver]

So our trainers will follow the contest from a hilltop fortification several hilltops removed from the breech that thier trainees will be stuffed into, there will be radio and visual contact so that the trainees can be graded. There is a steady stream of wannabe trainees, so a new class will start as soon as the graduates have been used up. There's a lot of stupid desperate young men on this planet. Education is important.

 

[Mowich]

So our trainers will follow the contest from a hilltop fortification several hilltops removed from the breech that thier trainees will be stuffed into, there will be radio and visual contact so that the trainees can be graded.

You seem to have grasped the nuances of the situation DB........mind you whilst ensconced on their tor, they have every possibility of coming under fire from the bad guys.

There is a steady stream of wannabe trainees, so a new class will start as soon as the graduates have been used up. There's a lot of stupid desperate young men on this planet. Education is important.

There are and it is.

 

[darkbeaver]

Accidents are not uncommon during training exercises in any competition. If I found myself at the front with my trainees one morn and they for some unforseen reason had become engaged with gunfire, from the east,as a polite Canadian service person or civilian would naturally want to advice his or here newly former students about possible avenues of action. I don't think there's much odd about that, except maybe those tedious old rules of war. Whatever they might be.

This country should keep it's warring to itself and grow a set before it ensnares the whole nation in another European adventure. Remember the climate is sneaking up on us as well.