The death of Sgt. Andrew Joseph Doiron on Friday marked Canada's first casualty as part of the U.S.-led coalition's war on the extremist Islamic State group. Canada is actively debating whether to extend the combat mission, which is due to expire at the end of the month.
Kurdish officials said Sunday that Doiron was killed after he and other Canadian soldiers showed up to the front line unannounced to call in airstrikes.
"They went to the front line to direct airstrikes because the area was attacked by ISIS the day before," Hezhar Ismail, director of coordination and relations for Kurdish peshmerga forces told The Associated Press, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.
But Canadian Defense Minister Jason Kenney said the Canadian soldiers had just returned to an observation post well behind the front line when they were mistakenly fired upon by Kurdish fighters.
"They weren't on the front line," Kenney said in an interview with CTV. "It was 200 meters from the front."
The Canadian military denied they were in the area to direct airstrikes.
"I can confirm it's a big no. They were not there to conduct airstrikes," said Daniel Lebouthillier, a spokesman for the Canadian military.
Kenney said he looks forward to hearing more after an investigation is completed.
"It's a regrettable case of mistaken identity. Obviously we want to know what happened," he said.
Doiron was 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 stable condition.
Peshmerga spokesman Halgurd Hekmat said a group of Canadian soldiers showed up unannounced Friday to the village of Bashiq, in Iraq's Nineveh province near the militant-held city of Mosul. The area had seen heavy fighting against Islamic State militants the previous day.
"When they returned, the peshmerga asked them to identify themselves," Hekmat told the AP. "They answered in Arabic, that's when peshmerga started shooting. It was their fault."
Hekmat said he doesn't know why the Canadians were there. "I consider it an improper action by the Canadians, and illogical," he said.
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 in a mission that was billed as noncombat with the elite troops working far behind the front lines.
Canadian soldiers have been helping the Kurdish fighters by directing coalition airstrikes against Islamic State militants, a role generally considered risky because it means they are close to the fighting. The fact that Canadian special forces have been so close to the front lines has stirred controversy in the country, but Kenney said the rules of engagement will remain the same.
The Canadians' efforts complement those of the United States, which has conducted the vast majority of the airstrikes against the Islamic State group. But in their new role, the Canadians are targeting airstrikes, a task the U.S. has thus far been unwilling to do. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has repeatedly said the U.S. would consider directing attacks from the ground but that it has not yet done so.
A Canadian military official said Doiron's body won't be flown back to Canada until Tuesday at the earliest and there will be a repatriation ceremony. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to comment publicly. Kurdish officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, had said earlier that the body would be flown back Sunday following a military ceremony at Irbil International Airport.
The Islamic State group currently holds a third of Iraq and Syria. The U.S.-led coalition began airstrikes targeting the extremists in August.
So far, four other troops have been killed as part of the coalition, not counting Iraqi forces. They include a U.S. Marine presumed lost at sea in October, a Marine killed in a noncombat incident in Baghdad in October, a U.S. Air Force pilot killed in December when his jet crashed in Jordan and a captive Jordanian pilot burned to death in a cage by the Islamic State group.
