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ISIS fighters shoot down Iraqi helicopter, killing 2 pilots
By Qassim Abdul-Zahra And Bassem Mroue BAGHDAD — Islamic State group militants shot down an Iraqi military helicopter, officials said Saturday, killing the two pilots onboard and raising fresh concerns...
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Coalition air campaign against Islamic State in Iraq makes gains, official says
KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait — The fighter pilot commanding Canadian warplanes bombing Islamic State targets in Iraq says the coalition air campaign that the Royal Canadian Air Force is part of has made such...
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Kurdish fighters advance against IS group in northern Syrian town of Kobani,...
By Bassem Mroue BEIRUT — Kurdish fighters advanced on the Islamic State extremist group in Iraq and Syria on Saturday, pushing into the contested, refugee-packed Sinjar mountains and gaining ground in...
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Judge finds sufficient evidence to warrant Canadian businessman’s extradition...
A judge has found sufficient evidence to extradite a Canadian businessman to the United States to stand trial on fraud charges over a botched multimillion-dollar deal to build armoured trucks for use...
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Matthew Fisher: Making spirits bright for Canadian troops deployed in Kuwait...
KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait — Canadian soldiers, sailors and aviators camped in the desert near Iraq will celebrate a midnight Christmas mass where they will be told the joyous story of how Christ was born...
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Prime Minister asks Canadians to pray for troops in Christmas message
OTTAWA — In his annual Christmas message, Prime Minister Stephen Harper asks Canadians to pray for members of the military as they battle Islamic extremists in northern Iraq. Canada has six CF-18...
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On second thought: Ukraine and Iraq crises led the news, but China’s moves...
With perfect hindsight, Postmedia’s national columnists revisit moments and events they observed in 2014 that deserve a second look. Today, it’s foreign correspondent Matthew Fisher. Getting to the...
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Fisher: Opposition leaders need to speak up about extending Canada’s military...
Should Canada continue to participate in the U.S.-led fight against Islamic State when the current mission ends this spring? It is an important question that has received scant attention recently from...
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Violence, torture and pestilence: 2014 was not a great year for U.S.
For the United States, 2014 was a year of racial violence, rape, war, terrorism, drought and pestilence. Here are the top 10 U.S. events: The senate’s explosive report on CIA torture programs of 2001...
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Fisher: 2015 election to determine Canada’s role in a world full of woe
Who would have guessed at the beginning of 2014 that by the fall of this year Canadian warplanes would be bugging out of several airfields in a tiny Gulf emirate to conduct round-the-clock combat...
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Fisher: During time of global tumult, it is Justin Trudeau’s ideas, not Marc...
It seems I struck a raw nerve in examining the Liberals’ foreign and defence policies last week. Marc Garneau, the Liberal Foreign Affairs Critic, rebutted my column at length in Saturday’s National...
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Who are the suspects wanted for Paris shooting?
By John-Thor Dahlburg PARIS — Two brothers are suddenly the most wanted men in France, suspected of the armed onslaught on a newspaper office that claimed a dozen lives and horrified this country and...
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Paris shooting day 2: Manhunt for 2 suspects who killed 12
The latest French President Francois Hollande says the country has been “struck in the heart” of its capital city in the attacks on a satirical newspaper that killed 12. Hollande spoke Thursday morning...
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Islamic State group releases 200 Yazidis in Iraq (with video)
ALTON KUPRI, Iraq — The Islamic State group released about 200 Yazidis held for five months in Iraq, mostly elderly, infirm captives who likely slowed the extremists down, Kurdish military officials...
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Tensions emerge between Iraq, US-led coalition in battle against Islamic...
By Qassim Abdul-Zahra And Vivian Salama BAGHDAD — Iraqi commanders heavily dependent on outside support to defeat the Islamic State group are increasingly voicing frustration over the U.S.-led...
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Canadian man pleads not guilty to aiding suicide attack that killed US soldiers
NEW YORK, N.Y. – A Canadian man pleaded not guilty Saturday to U.S. charges that he sent money and provided other long-distance support to Tunisian jihadists believed responsible for a 2009 suicide...
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Clueless British politician says Snapchat helped ISIS take over territory in...
A former British defence minister claims that territorial gains by Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria were at least partly due to their mastery of Snapchat and WhatsApp. Tom King, a former Tory...
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Fisher: Allow Canadian special forces privacy to do necessary task in Iraq
Unlike our allies who have kept a tight lid on the operational activities of their special forces in Iraq, the Harper government and the Canadian military made an uncharacteristic decision to permit...
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Japan puts deep trust in Jordan to help secure release of Islamic State group...
TOKYO — Japan said it was putting its trust in Jordan to help gain the release of a Japanese journalist held by Islamic State militants, after the latest message purportedly from his captors extended...
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Photos Jan 30: Top images from around the world
The day’s best photos, as selected by editors at Postmedia News, are a stunning collection of the greatest images from around the world. Kurdish Peshmerga fighters surround extremists inside a hotel...
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Coyne: Why wouldn’t Islamic State be a threat to Canada?
Of all the arguments the government has advanced for Canada’s participation in the military campaign against Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, the one that has had the least traction, at least...
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Islamic State group kills another journalist in Iraq
BAGHDAD – The governor of Iraq’s Salahuddin province says a journalist from a local television network has been killed by the Islamic State group. Governor Raed Ibrahim says Raad al-Azzawi, who was a...
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Triple suicide bombing kills 26 Kurdish security force members in Iraq’s...
By Sinan Salaheddin And Sameer N. Yacoub BAGHDAD – A triple suicide bombing killed 26 Kurdish security forces northeast of Baghdad on Sunday and a roadside bomb killed the police chief of the western...
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Fisher: War-weary families find oasis amid the chaos of Iraq
GALI ALI BEG, Iraq — Tucked into a remote canyon a two-hour drive north of the Kurdish capital of Irbil, this small town is a beacon for Iraqis who pine for a quiet, safe life after decades of upheaval...
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Fisher: RCAF’s deployment to Kuwait stirs memories of Persian Gulf War
KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait — Establishing a temporary air base in Kuwait from which to bomb Islamic State targets in Iraq represents a homecoming of sorts for Canada’s six pack of CF-18 Hornets. Twenty-three...
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Netherlands says it’s OK for members of biker gang to fight ISIS in Iraq
Dutch biker gangs are free to send their members to the Middle East to fight ISIS, according to the country’s public prosecutor. The turmoil in the Middle East has already attracted hundreds of people...
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Den Tandt: Canadian military may get its $3.1-billion back
Even as the Harper Conservatives have deployed CF-18 fighter jets to Eastern Europe, and now to Kuwait to join the air war against Islamic State, the Canadian Forces have seen their funding slashed....
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Marsden: Spurned Barack Obama sidelined in U.S. midterm elections
WASHINGTON — Relegated to the Gulag of America’s mid-term elections, U.S. President Barack Obama last week sought refuge in actress Gwyneth Paltrow’s spacious Los Angeles home. “I am one of your...
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Den Tandt: NDP’s Tom Mulcair gets his opening
After two years of fruitlessly battling the rising tide of Justin Trudeau’s popularity, Tom Mulcair has an opportunity to knock a hole in the Liberal leader’s skiff. The question is whether he will...
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RCMP says it has video evidence Ottawa shooter had political, ideological...
The RCMP says it has uncovered “persuasive” evidence that last week’s fatal attack on a soldier at the National War Memorial and rampage through the halls of Parliament were driven by ideological and...
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Fisher: Canadian CF-18s set to launch by Saturday against Islamic State,...
The soldier commanding Canadian CF-18 fighter jets and other aircraft deployed to the Middle East says these forces are “on target” to launch operations against Islamic State jihadists by Saturday....
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Fisher: Canadian fighter jets in skies over Iraq but won’t drop bombs before...
KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait — The Royal Canadian Air Force began flying over Iraq Thursday, but CF-18 Hornet fighter jets will not begin dropping bombs or firing missiles until this weekend, according to...
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Fisher: Weather deters Canadian fighter jets from joining fight against...
KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait – A second pair of CF-18 Hornet fighter jets returned Friday from a combat mission over Iraq with a full bomb payload because cloud cover had obscured Islamic State positions. For...
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Islamic State group lines up, kills 50 men and women in Anbar province: Iraqi...
By Sameer N. Yacoub BAGHDAD — Islamic State group extremists lined up and shot dead at least 50 tribesmen and women in Iraq’s Anbar province, officials said Saturday, the latest mass killing committed...
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Den Tandt: Does Canada still need an independent military?
With Francois Hollande embarked on the first state visit to Canada by a French president in nearly 30 years, it seems appropriate to ask: What ideas could the Conservative Harper government purloin...
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Fisher: Canadian CF-18 fighter jets launch first attack on Islamic State...
KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait — Canadian fighter jets dropped bombs over Iraq late Sunday night, Iraqi time, Defense Minister Rob Nicholson announced in a statement from Ottawa. “Today, Canada’s CF-18s conducted...
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Canada’s jets part of coalition air strike that hit ‘large ISIS unit and...
KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait — Canada will not announce until Tuesday what targets two of its six CF-18 Hornets hit near the Islamic State-occupied Iraqi city of Fallujah. The U.S. military was not so shy....
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Officials say suicide attack in north Iraq on police convoy kills 8,...
By Sameer N. Yacoub BAGHDAD — A suicide truck bomber targeting a senior police officer’s convoy in Iraq killed eight people, including the ranking official, authorities said Saturday. The attack...
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Den Tandt: Tories’ love for the military is all hat, no cattle
Question: For how much longer can the federal Conservatives shamble along with a national defence and procurement posture that is disjointed, underfunded, poorly understood, chronically secretive and...
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Fisher: Harper says Canada prepared to attack ISIL in Syria, but not Assad...
AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Canada will not join the United States in attacking Syria if, as looks increasingly likely, Washington seeks to topple the regime of Bashar al-Assad there, Prime Minister...
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Fisher: Canada and Australia share similar challenges with homegrown terror
CANBERRA, Australia — Australians have been gutted by the shocking murders of RCAF Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent and Army Cpl. Nathan Cirillo. They have asked themselves: “What if those attacks were...
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Officials say bombings in and around Baghdad kill 9 people
By Sameer N. Yacoub THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BAGHDAD — A series of bombings in and around the Iraqi capital killed nine people Saturday and a senior Kurdish commander died in clashes with Islamic State...
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5 men handed preliminary charges, locked up in France over jihadi network
PARIS — French authorities filed preliminary charges on Saturday against five men allegedly implicated in a jihadi recruiting network based in a small southern town from where about 20 youths went to...
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Den Tandt: Liberals, New Democrats in a losing fight over Canadian Forces...
The Opposition parties are doing yeoman duty holding the Harper government to account over its shifting and garbled descriptions of what, precisely, 69 Canadian special forces soldiers are doing in...
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Canadian CF-18s destroy ISIS bomb factory and staging area
OTTAWA — Canadian warplanes have gone into action again in Iraq, bombing a militant compound and bomb-making factory in separate raids over the last few days. Defence Minister Rob Nicholson announced...
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Jordanian interior minister says country aims to ‘wipe out’ ISIS militants
AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan is going after Islamic State group militants wherever they are and plans to “wipe them out completely,” Jordan’s interior minister said in comments published Saturday. It was the...
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‘Endless war’ feared as Obama calls for ground troops against Islamic State
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama has asked Congress to authorize a broader war against the Islamic State extremist group by employing “limited” U.S. ground troops in Iraq and Syria. In a letter...
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Photos Feb 19: Top images from around the world
The day’s best photos, as selected by editors at Postmedia News, are a stunning collection of the greatest images from around the world. A man selling food for pigeons sits in a cubicle, near Yeni...
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Photos March 12: Top images from around the world
The day’s best photos, as selected by editors at Postmedia News, are a stunning collection of the greatest images from around the world. Paramedics load one of two police officers who were shot while...
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ISIS offers residents of the ‘caliphate’ a mix of brutality and charity...
By Hamza Hendawi And Bassem Mroue BEIRUT — During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the Islamic State group is showing two faces to the millions who live under its rule in Iraq and Syria — handing out...
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