Canadian-trained Kurdish forces won’t clear ISIL from city of Mosul
OTTAWA — Canadian-trained Kurdish forces in Iraq are expected to watch the upcoming fight for the city of Mosul from the sidelines, underlying the ethnic and religious divisions that persist within the country.
Preparations to liberate Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have been underway for months, with the Kurdish peshmerga, Iraqi military and Shia militia groups closing on the city. A humanitarian response is also being prepared to help the city’s 1 million people once the fighting starts.
Victory in Mosul will mark a key moment in the fight against ISIL, as the city is the last major urban centre still controlled by the militant group in Iraq.
But Brig.-Gen. David Anderson, who is in charge of an international team of military advisers posted within Iraq’s ministry of defence, indicated the approximately 2,000 peshmerga that Canada has trained in Iraq since September 2014 will not be directly involved in rooting ISIL from the city.