Canadian sergeant accidentally killed in Iraq, 3 more wounded

A Canadian Special Forces officer has been killed and three more troops wounded in Iraq after being shot by their Kurdish allies apparently by accident.

Chief of Canadian Defense Staff General Tom Lawson announced the incident on Saturday identifying the slain trooper as Sergeant Andrew Joseph Doiron, whose regiment was deployed to Iraq in a bid to provide military training and advice to Kurdish forces, AFP reported.

According to the Canadian military, during the incident the affected service members were “mistakenly engaged by Iraqi Kurdish forces following their return to an observation post behind the front lines.”

“Four Canadian advisers in Bashiqa headed to the front line. On their way back, the peshmerga (forces) did not recognize them, and shot toward them,” said Kurdish security spokesman Halgord Hekmat. “They went to the front line without the peshmerga’s knowledge.”

Canada has deployed nearly 600 military troops, including 69 Special Forces soldiers, to Iraq as part of a US-led coalition force to allegedly aid the country in the battle against the ISIL.

Although the mission of the Canadian contingent is not to engage in direct ground combat with the ISIL militants, they have clashed with the Takfiri elements on at least two instances.

Iraqi forces at Tikrit’s doorsteps

Iraqi forces, backed by the nation’s Shia and Sunni volunteers, continue their push to recapture the city of Tikrit from the ISIL terrorists, who have suffered huge losses and fatalities since the Iraqi operation to retake the key city started on March 2.

According to latest reports from the battle area, the Iraqi army has so far retaken several neighborhoods in the city, located on the Tigris River in the east, and is moving forward to completely cleanse it from the Takfiri elements.

Iraqi forces spent the operation’s first days clearing outlying areas of the city and are currently closing in on central Tikrit, as well as the towns of al-Alam and Ad-Dawr.

“There are fierce clashes around Ad-Dawr, with army aircraft providing support against the threat of snipers and car bombs,” an army lieutenant colonel said.

The troops recaptured the airport in Ad-Dawr on Thursday. They have managed to liberate 97 regions and districts over the past few days.

Gurma on verge of liberation

Meanwhile, an offensive was launched this week to recapture the town of Gurma in Anbar Province, which is just 10 kilometers from the ISIL stronghold of Fallujah and less than 30 kilometers from Baghdad airport.

“Gurma will soon be liberated totally, our forces are on the edge of town,” said a Friday statement from Baghdad operations command.

According to the statement, 73 ISIL terrorists were killed in the first two days of fighting while a number of bombs were defused.

ISIL started its campaign of terror in Iraq in early June 2014. The heavily armed terrorists took control of Mosul before sweeping through parts of the country’s Sunni Arab heartland.

Iraqi soldiers, police units, Kurdish forces, Shia volunteers and Sunni tribesmen are engaged in battles with the terrorists to drive them back from some areas they have under control.