Canada to end airstrikes against ISIS, increase trainers in Kurdistan

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was elected to office in November, said his government will end its bombing missions in the war-torn region by 22 February with six fighter jets being withdrawn. Bibeau said last week that Canada would remain a “significant donor in terms of humanitarian assistance”. Canada would also spend $145 million over the next three years on other non-military security efforts, including counter-terrorism efforts.

“We can’t do everything … we were guided by our desire to do what we could do best to help in the region and to do it in the right way”, Trudeau told a news conference.

The bumping up of the overall numbers will, in itself, increase the risk of a Canadian being harmed during the two-year military operation, said retired Canadian Forces Col. George Petrolekas. We will work with allies to defeat ISIL and the terrorist threat it represents.

Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 Hornets depart after refueling with a KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to the 340th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron, October 30, 2014, over Iraq.

In offering his view of Canada’s expanded training mission, Vance went to some lengths to avoid contradicting his boss, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has insisted trainers would not be involved in combat.

Over the past two years, Canadian fighter jets have flown 1,356 sorties over Iraq and Syria, striking weapons caches and IS fighting positions. “Canadians certainly deserve better”.

Canada is adding 180 soldiers and C$1.6 billion ($1.15 billion) in new aid and military spending to its fight against Islamic State militants, while withdrawing its planes from coalition airstrikes.

“We are for what will be effective”, Trudeau said, “not for what will make us feel good to say at any given moment”. “Today’s announcement actually blurs these lines even more”.

The U.S. ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman said in a statement, per the Toronto Star, that the Canadian government’s announcement was in “line with the coalition’s current needs”.

The Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan must attend a meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member countries in Brussels on Wednesday. At the same time, the Liberal Party leader outlined Canada’s new mission in Syria and Iraq, where the North American country will deliver C$840 million ($602 million) worth of “food, shelter, healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene, as well as protection and emergency education”, according to an official Canadian government document released Monday. The military now has 70 trainers on the ground in northern Iraq.

As well as training them, Canada will also arm the Kurdish forces with light weapons such as assault rifles, machineguns and light mortars, as well as optical systems for the weapons and ammunition.