Canadian troops exchanged fire with ISIS

A Canadian general disclosed Monday that Canadian special forces deployed to Iraq recently exchanged fire with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), in the first official acknowledgment that Western forces have directly engaged the terrorist group.  

The incident took place sometime last week between ISIS fighters and Canadian forces, Canadian Brig. Gen. Michael Rouleau said at a press briefing in Ottawa.  

{mosads}Like U.S. troops, Canadian special forces have deployed to Iraq in a noncombat role. However, they can fire on the enemy to protect themselves.  

Rouleau said the Canadian forces had accompanied senior Iraqi officials to the “frontlines” during a planning meeting and came under “very effective and very direct mortar and machine gun fire.” 

“That resulted in the immediate requirement to return fire, which my operators did. And using sniper fire, they neutralized both threats at some distance,” said Rouleau, commander of the Canadian special operations forces command.  

Rouleau said it was the first and only time his forces had ever exchanged fire with ISIS, since Iraqi forces are leading the fight.  

Although it was not immediately clear where the incident took place, Rouleau said in an October briefing that those forces would be operating “within the north.” 

The U.S. and the United Kingdom have also deployed a small number of troops to northern Iraq for several months, to train Kurdish peshmerga fighters on heavy machine guns and combat infantry skills.  

Concern within the U.S. has increased in past weeks over the safety of U.S. forces deployed to Iraq, since ISIS continues to target bases where U.S. troops are.  

About 300 Marines are based at Al Asad Air Base in western Iraq, which Pentagon officials say comes under “regular” but indirect fire from ISIS.  

Approximately 170 U.S. troops are stationed at Camp Taji, just north of Baghdad, training Iraqi security forces. U.S. airstrikes have targeted ISIS militants as close as 13 kilometers to the camp.  

While coalition airstrikes near Taji have been conducted nearly daily for the past two weeks, U.S. officials say there have not been any ISIS attacks on the base itself.