Canada will send more trainers to Iraq, but fighter jets will be removed, despite Paris


TORONTO (AP)

Canada will send more military trainers to Iraq but remains committed to removing its fighter jets from the country, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday, sticking with his campaign pledges for the region despite the Paris attacks. He added that he stands by his goal of bringing in 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of the year despite mounting domestic pressure to reevaluate the plan.

Canada has had 69 special forces soldiers with Kurdish Peshmerga fighters since last year. Trudeau said details on how many more will be deployed and their exact role still need to be decided.

“I’ve committed repeatedly to my allies that we were going to do more on the training front and that means obviously more than just 69 trainers,” Trudeau told reporters on a plane as he headed from the G-20 Summit in Turkey to the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation gathering in the Philippines.

“How many that will be, what form that will take, what kind of engagement we’re going to have, those are things that we’re going to work out,” he added.

Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper sent Canadian soldiers to help train Kurdish fighters in September last year in a mission billed as noncombat. But the troops have been training on the front lines and directing airstrikes, stirring controversy. A Canadian soldier was killed in a friendly fire incident.