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Trudeau said: Its also something to be understood as being entirely consistent with what Canada is expected to be doing as part of the coalition against Daesh. Photograph: Canadian Press`/Rex/Shutterstock

A record-shattering lethal shot fired by a Canadian sniper in Iraq has reignited a longstanding debate over Canadas role in the region, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau telling reporters it was entirely consistent with the countrys non-combat mission and should be celebrated.

Last week, the defence department confirmed reports that a Canadian sniper had shot an Isis militant from 3,540 metres (2 miles) away. The shot surpassed the previous world military record for the longest confirmed kill held by a British sniper who took aim at a Taliban fighter in 2009 by more than a kilometre.

Officials said the sniper was a member of the Canadian militarys elite counter-terrorism unit. The shot was fired last month after Canadian snipers noticed that Isis fighters were poised to ambush Iraqi security forces, according to the Globe and Mail.

The news rekindled a long running debate based on a 2015 campaign promise by the Liberals, led by Trudeau, to end Canadas combat mission in Iraq.

Months after sweeping into power, they said they were doing just that; pulling Canadas six fighter jets out of the US-led coalition against Islamic State and instead putting roughly 200 special forces troops on the ground to support Kurdish forces in Iraq.

But questions as to what exactly this support entails have continued to plague the Liberals, particularly after Gen Jonathan Vance, Canadas chief of defence staff, told a parliamentary committee in November that Canadian troops have been allowed to fire first against Isis militants. We dont have to be shot at first, he said. We can take the first shot if it is to save lives.

The recent news of the sniper casts further doubt on the governments assertion, said Tom Mulcair, leader of the New Democratic party, last week. Has your definition of combat changed since forming government? Mulcair asked in a letter to Trudeau, adding: Canadians deserve no less than to know the true extent of our involvement in Iraq.

Reporters put those concerns to Trudeau on Tuesday. The prime minister began by addressing the kill shot. What happened there is, first of all, something to be celebrated for the excellence of the Canadian forces in their training, in the performance of their duties, he said. But its also something to be understood as being entirely consistent with what Canada is expected and Canadians expect our forces to be doing as part of the coalition against Daesh.

The sniper had been defending Iraqi and Kurdish forces when he took the shot, said Trudeau. The advise-and-assist mission that our forces are engaged in in northern Iraq has always had an element of defence of, obviously, Canadian troops and of our coalition partners.

Mulcair said he remained unconvinced. You cant have people shooting people to death on the frontlines and still claim this is not a combat mission, he told the Globe and Mail.

He said he was surprised to hear the prime ministers view on the sniper. It is certainly not part of my values to say that we should be celebrating the death of a human being, no matter what the circumstances.

The renewed debate comes just days before the mandate guiding Canadas mission to Iraq is set to expire. The Liberal government is expected to announce either an extension or changes to the mission shortly.

Originally posted here:
Sniper's record kill shot in Iraq 'should be celebrated', Trudeau says - The Guardian

WARREN, Mich. (WXYZ) - A Warren woman is in the fight of her life because every day could be her last.

Thirty-eight-year-old Mirvet Bahoura is battling a rare auto-immune disease, which requires daily medication - and a bone marrow transplant at any given moment.

In something most, would call a miracle, Mirvet found a match in her 55-year-old uncle, Ghassan Kassab.

He's already saved her life, not once but twice.

But on June 11th, a routine visit to ice, turned into a nightmare, which could be a matter of life and death for them both.

Kassab was detained because of his past criminal record and is now being held behind bars in Arizona, with the threat of being deported back to Iraq.

So now, her uncle -- her donor and lifesaver is gone.

"He's not here to provide and then I have to be put on a waiting list and that can take years and years and especially like with Mediterranean, Middle Eastern it's hard to find a match like that," says Mirvet Bahoura, tearfully.

Kassab did have a drug conviction two decades ago, and a DUI conviction almost 10 years ago.

According to a court of law, he has paid his debt to society.

Kassab has been in this country since he was 6-years-old and does not want to return to Iraq.

Mervit and her family have been working with CODE Legal Aid. They have helped them to secure legal counsel, with hope of bringing their case before the immigration court and bring her uncle back home.

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Man facing deportation to Iraq is only available donor for his ill niece - WXYZ

ISTANBUL Turkish forces retaliated with an artillery barrage overnight and destroyed Kurdish YPG militia targets after the group's fighters opened fire on Turkey-backed forces in northern Syria, the military said on Wednesday.

It said Turkish warplanes separately struck Kurdish militants in northern Iraq on Wednesday, killing seven fighters from the PKK group which Ankara says is closely linked to the YPG.

The strikes came after Turkey's defense minister warned that Ankara would retaliate against any threatening moves by the YPG and after reports that Turkey was reinforcing its military presence in northern Syria.

The United States supports the YPG in the fight against Islamic State in Syria, while NATO ally Turkey regards them as terrorists indistinguishable from militants from the outlawed PKK which is carrying out an insurgency in southeast Turkey.

Turkey's army said YPG machine-gun fire on Tuesday evening targeted Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army elements in the Maranaz area south of the town of Azaz in northern Syria.

"Fire support vehicles in the region were used to retaliate in kind against the harassing fire and the identified targets were destroyed/neutralised," the military statement said.

The boom of artillery fire could be heard overnight from the Turkish border town of Kilis, broadcaster Haberturk said. It was not clear whether there were casualties in the exchange of fire.

Ankara was angered by a U.S. decision in June to arm the YPG in the battle for Islamic State's Raqqa stronghold. President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that nations which promised to get back weapons from the YPG once Islamic State were defeated were trying to trick Turkey.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Tuesday left open the possibility of longer-term assistance to the YPG, saying the U.S. may need to supply them weapons and equipment even after the capture of Raqqa.

Ankara considers the YPG as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is deemed a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

The PKK has carried out an armed insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 and more than 40,000 people, most of them Kurds, have died in the fighting.

Turkish warplanes on Wednesday morning destroyed PKK shelters and gun positions during air strikes in the Avasin-Basyan area of northern Iraq, killing seven militants planning an attack on Turkish border outposts, an army statement said.

Faced with turmoil across its southern border, Turkey last year sent troops into Syria to support Free Syrian Army rebels fighting both Islamic State and Kurdish forces who control a large part of Syria's northern border region.

Erdogan has said Turkey would not flinch from taking tougher action against the YPG in Syria if Turkey believed it needed to.

(Reporting by Orhan Coskun, Tulay Karadeniz and Omer Berberoglu, Writing by Daren Butler and David Dolan,; Editing by Ed Osmond and Richard Balmforth)

TOKYO An ally of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe denied on Thursday receiving secret political donations from an educational institution at the core of a scandal over suspected favoritism that has sliced Abe's support ratings ahead of a key local poll.

SYDNEY/VATICAN CITY Australian police charged a top adviser to Pope Francis with multiple historical sex crimes on Thursday, in a case that poses a dilemma for a pontiff who has vowed zero tolerance for such offences.

Read more:
Turkey returns fire on YPG in Syria, warplanes hit militants in Iraq - Reuters

Nicholas Dugan of California looks at the new McMillan Tac-50 A1-R2 rifle on display at the McMillan Firearms Manufacturing booth at the National Shooting Sports Foundations 34th annual Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show at the Sands Expo and Convention Center January 17, 2012, in Las Vegas, Nevada. AFP

OTTAWA, Canada Canadas supposed non-combat role in Iraq is being questioned after a special forces sniper took out an ISIS fighter in Iraq.

But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday would have none of it, saying Canadian troops training Kurdish fighters have orders to also fight in defense of coalition soldiers.

I can tell you that defending our allies in the coalition has been an integral part of our mission, Trudeau told a press conference marking the end of the parliamentary session.

This is completely in keeping with our responsibilities as Canadians, as members of the coalition in northern Iraq and it will continue to be that way, he said.

The military confirmed to AFP that a member of its Joint Task Force 2 unit deployed in Iraq had successfully hit a target from 3,540 meters, or 2.2 miles.

According to a media report, the soldier was positioned on a high-rise rooftop last month and, using a McMillan TAC-50 rifle, killed an ISIS fighter who was attacking Iraqi soldiers.

Since then, opposition parties have used the incident to challenge the governments claim that JTF2s mission is simply to advise and assist Kurdish militia, and accused Trudeau of waging a secret war without parliaments nod.

It seriously calls into question your governments claim that Canadian forces are not involved in direct combat in Iraq, New Democratic Party leader Thomas Mulcair said in a letter to the prime minister.

Trudeaus Liberals came to power in 2015 promising to end Canadian airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq.

At the same time, preferring to support the Iraqis in their fight, over direct military intervention, the government tripled the number of Canadian military trainers on the ground to more than 200.CBB

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Sniper's shot puts focus on Canada's Iraq role - Inquirer.net

Three years ago, as darkness fell over the northern Iraqi town of Qaraqosh, Sabah Petrus Shema helped his extended family pile into a pickup truck and leave town. When they were gone, he grabbed two Kalashnikovs and waited as the sound of mortar fire drew near.

Miles down the road, the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) was advancing. By early the next morning, nearly all of the towns residents were gone, and a stream of panicked soldiers began to pass through, retreating from the front. Thats when Shema knew it was time to flee. It was a painful decision, he says. We were leaving behind our homes, our churches, everything. All we took was our clothes, our IDs and some money.

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Qaraqosh was among dozens of towns in northern Iraq that ISIS overran in 2014. Over the past three years, the Iraqi army has regrouped, with the help of Shiite militias, Kurdish forces and American airpower, driving the militants out of all but a few small pockets, such as central Mosul. But while predominantly Muslim towns have begun to rebuild, in Qaraqosh and other mostly Christian places, few residents have returned. Fearing more war and extremism, many worry they never will. The future in Iraq is full of ambiguity, says Shema, who now lives in a refugee camp in Erbil. After ISIS is gone, there may be another group that is even worse.

An Iraqi Christian family displaced by ISIS from their hometown of Bartella, on the edge of Mosul, prepares to go on an outing from their new home in an IDP camp in Erbil. Tommy Trenchard

Today, most of Qaraqosh looks like ghost town. Weeds and wildflowers have sprouted along the main roads, and theres an eerie silence, save for the occasional passing truck filled with soldiers from the Nineveh Plains Unit, a Christian militia.

The destruction of Qaraqosh was systematic, and everywhere you look, the buildings are charred from flames. ISIS fighters went from home to home, dousing them in chemicals and setting them ablaze. In churches, they smashed religious icons and slashed the faces of paintings of Jesus and Mary. Throughout the town, they left booby traps and improvised explosive devices, some of which remain.

Yousif Yaqoub, the president of the Beth Nahrin National Union, an Assyrian Christian political party, believes the militants wanted to make the town uninhabitable, to send a message to the countrys Christians. Its not just in Qaraqosh, Yaqoub tells Newsweek by phone from Erbil. In the other Christian towns too, they tried to destroy every single house.

Given Qaraqoshs disrepair, its understandable that few residents want to return. Yet other Muslim-majority towns suffered worse destruction and have sprung back to life in the months since ISIS fled. Even in Mosul, where fierce fighting continues, once shuttered stores have reopened, and empty neighborhoods are now bustling with people. On a visit to the Wadi Hajar neighborhood of western Mosul in April, just a month after it was recaptured, shopkeepers were repainting their blackened storefronts even as gunfire and explosions erupted a few blocks away.

Though a few Qaraqosh residents have started trickling back in recent months, the vast majority arent. Before the ISIS invasion, 50,000 people lived here. Now, there are only an estimated 180 families. The Christians are concerned over how readily some of their Muslim neighbors accepted the rise of ISIS. There are still many people who support ISIS, says a Nineveh Plains Unit member, who identified himself only as Major Latif. The militamen periodically conduct raids to break up sleeper cells in the area.

In recent months, ISIS sleeper cells have launched attacks in and around parts of Mosul and Kirkuk, as well as in the capital, Baghdad. We are afraid of all the people who supported ISIS, says Shema. They were brainwashed. Even the children were taught to kill. If security was present, then we could go home. But in Qaraqosh there is no justice, no law to protect us.

Many Iraqi Christians fear the law will never protect them. ISIS, they feel, is just one of many extremist groups that have threatened non-Muslims since the U.S. toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. Before the American invasion, there were roughly 1.5 million Christians in Iraq. Since then, their numbers have dwindled to 500,000. Most, such as Shema, are now living in displacement camps in Iraqs semiautonomous Kurdish region. The conditions are cramped but adequate, in part because the plight of Iraqs Christians has become a cause for faith-based charities across the world.

Yet for Shema, life in the refugee camp is a form of purgatoryhis home will forever be Qaraqosh, even if he doesnt know when he can live there again. Hes visited oncebrieflysince ISIS pulled out. All his furniture had been stolen, and there was ash covering the floor. In the front garden, his flower beds had disappeared, and there was a gaping hole where Iraqi troops had dug up an IED.

It was a great shock, he says. [ISIS] destroyed everything.

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In Photos: Iraqi Christians Fear Going Home

Afraid ISIS will rise again, thousands of displaced Iraqi Christians refuse to return to their homes.

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ISIS Is Almost Defeated in Iraq, but Thousands of Christians Refuse to Return to Their Homes - Newsweek