Elite Canadian soldiers helped free hostages: CTV
Updated Fri. Mar. 24 2006 8:38 AM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
Canada's elite JTF-2 special forces played an instrumental role in the rescue operation mounted by multinational troops to free the three aid workers, CTV News has learned.
Two Canadian aid workers and a British colleague held hostage in Iraq for nearly four months were rescued Thursday during a multinational military operation involving Canadian, British, and U.S. special forces.
Coalition forces were tipped off to the hostages' location by someone who was captured Wednesday night.
The operation to free the three aid workers was carried out early Thursday. U.S. and British forces broke into a house just northwest of the capital at about 8 a.m. local time, about three hours after that tip, according to U.S. Army Gen. Rick Lynch.
The hostages were freed without a shot being fired, Lynch added. They were bound, and held together. Their captors were not present.
Though Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canada participated in the operation, he wouldn't confirm nor deny reports that the top secret commandos Joint Task Force Two helped rescue Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, and Briton Norman Kember, 74.
"At every phase of these particular events of this hostage-taking, Canadian government officials, the government of Canada, was fully engaged," Harper told reporters in Gatineau, Que.
"Anything beyond that, I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to say. These are issues of national security," said Harper, who was awakened in the early hours with news of the rescue.
However, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay confirmed Thursday several Canadian agencies were involved in the rescue, including the Department of National Defence, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP.
"From top to bottom, in all the departments, everyone has been on the file, on the job," he said, appearing on CTV Newsnet's Mike Duffy Live.
The Defence Department also refused to confirm Canadian military involvement, but a source told The Canadian Press the elite squad was "instrumental" in the rescue operation.
Defence officials stressed that they never comment on any operations involving JTF-2, claiming that any kind of confirmation could compromise future or ongoing hostage rescue situations.
Meanwhile, Harper made it clear that the Canadians who were sent to Iraq have nothing to do with the U.S.-led war in the violence-racked nation.
"Any personnel that have been present for this particular crisis will obviously not remain," Harper said.
The three aid workers -- all members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams -- were kidnapped in early November at gunpoint on a Baghdad street.
Also kidnapped was American Tom Fox, 54. Fox's bullet-riddled body was found on a Baghdad street on March 10, just days after his captors released a video in which he was ominously missing.
The Department of Foreign Affairs set up a crisis team immediately after the men were abducted from a Baghdad street on Nov. 26.
Senior government officials in various departments told The Canadian Press that the need to plan a military rescue became apparent within days of the hostages being seized.
CP reported that then-prime minister Paul Martin's Liberal government approved Canada's participation in the mission in the middle of the election campaign.
Ottawa dispatched a team of Canadian soldiers to Baghdad in early December that included a team of diplomats, Mounties, and CSIS intelligence officers.
Once the team determined a ransom note was unlikely to emerge, they came to the realization that the need to plan a military rescue mission was clear.
That team stayed in Baghdad through Christmas and into this year.
Liberal MP Dan McTeague, a former parliamentary secretary responsible for Canadians abroad, told CP the group made discreet inquiries about the hostages.
They also made it clear that the hostages were Canadian humanitarian workers, and that Canada did not back the war.
"There's a lot of people here who worked extremely hard and whose names and efforts may never be known, but there are three people alive today as a result of it," said McTeague.
"But let this be a solid reminder to all Canadians that the situation there is far from stable, and not going there isn't just about protecting their own lives, but about not endangering other lives of people back home."
With a report from CTV's Roger Smith and files from The Canadian Press
Updated Fri. Mar. 24 2006 8:38 AM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
Canada's elite JTF-2 special forces played an instrumental role in the rescue operation mounted by multinational troops to free the three aid workers, CTV News has learned.
Two Canadian aid workers and a British colleague held hostage in Iraq for nearly four months were rescued Thursday during a multinational military operation involving Canadian, British, and U.S. special forces.
Coalition forces were tipped off to the hostages' location by someone who was captured Wednesday night.
The operation to free the three aid workers was carried out early Thursday. U.S. and British forces broke into a house just northwest of the capital at about 8 a.m. local time, about three hours after that tip, according to U.S. Army Gen. Rick Lynch.
The hostages were freed without a shot being fired, Lynch added. They were bound, and held together. Their captors were not present.
Though Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canada participated in the operation, he wouldn't confirm nor deny reports that the top secret commandos Joint Task Force Two helped rescue Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, and Briton Norman Kember, 74.
"At every phase of these particular events of this hostage-taking, Canadian government officials, the government of Canada, was fully engaged," Harper told reporters in Gatineau, Que.
"Anything beyond that, I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to say. These are issues of national security," said Harper, who was awakened in the early hours with news of the rescue.
However, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay confirmed Thursday several Canadian agencies were involved in the rescue, including the Department of National Defence, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP.
"From top to bottom, in all the departments, everyone has been on the file, on the job," he said, appearing on CTV Newsnet's Mike Duffy Live.
The Defence Department also refused to confirm Canadian military involvement, but a source told The Canadian Press the elite squad was "instrumental" in the rescue operation.
Defence officials stressed that they never comment on any operations involving JTF-2, claiming that any kind of confirmation could compromise future or ongoing hostage rescue situations.
Meanwhile, Harper made it clear that the Canadians who were sent to Iraq have nothing to do with the U.S.-led war in the violence-racked nation.
"Any personnel that have been present for this particular crisis will obviously not remain," Harper said.
The three aid workers -- all members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams -- were kidnapped in early November at gunpoint on a Baghdad street.
Also kidnapped was American Tom Fox, 54. Fox's bullet-riddled body was found on a Baghdad street on March 10, just days after his captors released a video in which he was ominously missing.
The Department of Foreign Affairs set up a crisis team immediately after the men were abducted from a Baghdad street on Nov. 26.
Senior government officials in various departments told The Canadian Press that the need to plan a military rescue became apparent within days of the hostages being seized.
CP reported that then-prime minister Paul Martin's Liberal government approved Canada's participation in the mission in the middle of the election campaign.
Ottawa dispatched a team of Canadian soldiers to Baghdad in early December that included a team of diplomats, Mounties, and CSIS intelligence officers.
Once the team determined a ransom note was unlikely to emerge, they came to the realization that the need to plan a military rescue mission was clear.
That team stayed in Baghdad through Christmas and into this year.
Liberal MP Dan McTeague, a former parliamentary secretary responsible for Canadians abroad, told CP the group made discreet inquiries about the hostages.
They also made it clear that the hostages were Canadian humanitarian workers, and that Canada did not back the war.
"There's a lot of people here who worked extremely hard and whose names and efforts may never be known, but there are three people alive today as a result of it," said McTeague.
"But let this be a solid reminder to all Canadians that the situation there is far from stable, and not going there isn't just about protecting their own lives, but about not endangering other lives of people back home."
With a report from CTV's Roger Smith and files from The Canadian Press
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