Canada's war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has quietly entered a new phase, resulting in plans to keep fewer troops in the Middle East even after the COVID-19 pandemic passes.
The Canadian Armed Forces has had up to 850 troops in the region in recent years, including hundreds of military trainers who have been teaching the basics of soldiering to Iraqi forces as part of the global fight against ISIL.
"For Canada and a number of the other nations, some of the soldiers that were retrograded in March will not be coming back because there is no longer a requirement for them to do the more hands-on, tactical-level tasks that they were performing," Wright said in an interview this week. Canada isn't alone in drawing down its forces in Iraq; the U.S.-led coalition handed over a major base to the Iraqi military last week, the latest such facility to have changed hands as various countries have started to withdraw from the region.
It also follows a report by the U.S. Defense Department's top watchdog last fall that the Iraqi military "has not changed its level of reliance on coalition forces for the last nine months and that Iraqi commanders continue to request coalition assets instead of utilizing their own systems." A Canadian general will also continue to command a NATO training force in the country until later this year, Wright said, when control will be handed over to Denmark.
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