Canadian military medical staff to run hospital in northern Iraq to aid in battle against ISIL

OTTAWA : Canada’s plan to arm Kurdish forces has run into delays but it is proceeding with contributing a medical team to run a hospital in northern Iraq. Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said Wednesday that the Canadian military would contribute 40 to 60 medical personnel to operate a hospital in the Kurdish capital of Erbil. “We will take the lead in running this,” he told journalists from Washington. Sajjan was attending a meeting of senior leaders from nations involved in the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The hospital will be set in a secure location away from the front lines, he added. Canada has committed the medical personnel for a one-year period but that could be revisited at a later date, Sajjan said.
The hospital staff are part of Canada’s commitment to the war announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in February.But another commitment from that time — the arming of Kurdish forces — still has to be accomplished.Sajjan, in a previous interview, said the delay in providing small arms to the Kurds is due to bureaucratic roadblocks and not resistance from the Iraqi or Turkish governments. The issue of arming the Kurds, now being trained by Canadian special forces, is highly controversial.Kurdish leaders openly acknowledge their intent is to eventually create an independent state. They argue it is their right to break away from Iraq, pointing to Quebec’s attempts to leave Canada as an example. The arms are needed both to fight against ISIL and to defend an independent state, Kurdish leaders have said.