General says training likely next step in Islamic State fight
OTTAWA — Canada’s bombing campaign against Islamist insurgents could eventually lead to an Afghan-style mission to train the Iraqi army, but it’s an open question whether the Harper government will commit to such a venture.
The country’s top military commander, Gen. Tom Lawson, says bolstering Iraqi forces is the likely next phase of the U.S.-led coalition’s effort.
Published reports in the U.S. that say Washington has asked NATO to organize a mission to train Iraqi soldiers, many of whom received American instruction up to 2009.
In other developments Friday: ■ Al-Qaida’s leading terrorism franchise presented a new challenge to the U.S.-led coalition in Syria and Iraq by calling on all Muslims to support Islamic State despite its fierce rivalry with the group. The call by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is doubly significant because its leader is believed to have been appointed chief operating officer and deputy to al-Qaida’s overall head, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
During the past year, alZawahiri and the head of Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, have clashed openly and the two groups have fought each other in Syria.
But the Americans’ decision to bomb not only Islamic State in Iraq and Syria but also a group of al-Qaida fighters accused of planning an attack on the United States has drawn the rival jihadist organizations closer together.
■ Islamic State has captured some MiG fighter jets and is test-flying the warplanes in Syria with the help of former Iraqi air force pilots, the monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
■ The government in Baghdad has imposed a curfew in Ramadi, the capital of the Sunni-dominated Anbar province, 115 kilometres west of Baghdad, as Iraqi forces move to eliminate pockets of resistance there.