Peshmerga say Canadian killed in Iraqi friendly-fire case was mistaken identity
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Version 0 of 1. A Canadian special forces soldier has been killed in a friendly-fire incident after he and others ignored an order to stay in their car and showed up at the frontline unannounced, a spokesman for Iraq’s Kurdish forces has said. The death on Friday of Sgt Andrew Joseph Doiron marked Canada’s first casualty as part of the US-led coalition’s war on Islamic State (Isis). Canadian officials could not be immediately reached for comment on Sunday on the peshmerga claim, though Canada’s defence minister previously acknowledged Doiron’s death came as a result of “a case of mistaken identity”. Halgurd Hekmat, a spokesman for Kurdish forces known as the peshmerga, said on Sunday that a group of Canadian soldiers showed up unannounced on Friday at the village of Bashiq, in Iraq’s Nineveh province. The area, near the Isis-held city of Mosul, had seen heavy fighting the previous day. “When they returned, the peshmerga asked them to identify themselves,” Hekmat told Associated Press. “They answered in Arabic, that’s when peshmerga started shooting.” Hekmat added that he did not know why the Canadians were there. “I consider it an improper action by the Canadians and illogical,” he said. Canada’s defence department announced the death of Doiron, a soldier in the Canadian Special Operations Regiment based at Garrison Petawawa, Ontario. Three other Canadian soldiers were wounded in the incident and are in a stable condition, the Canadian defence minister, Jason Kenney, said on Saturday. Canada has 69 special forces soldiers with Kurdish peshmerga fighters in what the government calls an advising and assisting role. They were sent to help train Kurdish fighters last September to conduct what Canada insists is a non-combat role, with the elite troops working far behind the frontlines. The fact that Canadian special forces have been training and assisting on the frontlines and directing air strikes has stirred controversy in the country, but Kenney said the rules of engagement will remain the same. Kenney said Doiron’s death had “nothing to do with combat”, saying it was a case of mistaken identity on the part of Kurdish fighters at night. “It was caused by a failure of identification. There will be an inquiry,” Kenney said. Isis is currently dominant in a third of Iraq and Syria. The US-led coalition began air strikes in August. So far, four other troops have been killed as part of the coalition, not counting Iraqi forces. They include a US marine presumed lost at sea in October, a marine killed in a non-combat incident in Baghdad in October, a US air force pilot killed in December when his jet crashed in Jordan and a captive Jordanian pilot burned to death by Islamic State. |