Canada Loses First Soldier in Fight Against ISIL From Allies' Hands

Kurdish officials claimed Sunday that Sgt. Andrew Joseph Doiron and three fellow soldiers, who were wounded in the attack, showed up to the front line unannounced to call in airstrikes.

"They went to the frontline to direct airstrikes because the area was attacked by ISIS the day before," Hezhar Ismail, director of coordination and relations for the Peshmerga, the Kurdish fighters.

Canadian officials, however, denied such allegations, saying the soldiers had passed several Kurdish checkpoints with no problems and were well behind the frontlines when shot by a nervous Kurdish fighter.

The Canadians were less than 100 meters from the post when they were cut down by the friendly fire, according to a military source.

“The notion that we somehow ‘surprised’ them by being there is not accurate,” the source said.

“They had been there earlier in the day, and they were returning to the observation post… when it was dark out, and apparently it was a case of mistaken identity,” Canada’s Defence Minister Jason Kenney told Canada TV on Sunday.

Peshmerga spokesman Halgurd Hekmat also confirmed that the Canadian group showed up unannounced Friday in the village of Bashiq in Iraq’s Nineveh province near the militant-held city of Mosul, which witnessed heavy fighting against IS militants the previous day.