Canada moving some of its military from Iraq

Canada will remove some military personnel from Iraq amid escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran and a nonbinding vote by Iraq’s Parliament to expel foreign troops, the chief of Canada’s Defense Staff said Tuesday.

“In response to the events of late, the CAF [Canadian Armed Forces], working in collaboration with our international partners, has temporarily paused our efforts in Iraq that fall under Operation IMPACT and the NATO Mission Iraq (NMI),” Gen. Jonathan Vance said in the statement.

“The situation in Iraq is complex and it is best to pause our work there in order to fully concentrate our attention and efforts towards the safety and security of our personnel while the situation develops. We have approximately 800 military members in the region, about 500 in Iraq, some of them are deployed on Operation IMPACT and some with NMI — two separate missions,” Vance added.

A letter from General Jonathan Vance, Chief of the Defence Staff, to Canadians about our deployed personnel in the Middle East. #OpIMPACT pic.twitter.com/Y0IdmZdo9f

— Canadian Forces (@CanadianForces) January 7, 2020

In coming days, Vance said, some Canadian personnel will be temporarily moved from Iraq to Kuwait.

“Simply put, we are doing this to ensure their safety and security,” he said, saying the CAF will provide updates in coming days and weeks “as often as necessary.”

Iraq’s Parliament took the vote over the weekend in the wake of the U.S. killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad. Tehran has vowed retaliation, which President Trump said would be met with a strong response, at one point threatening cultural sites in the nation.

Trump on Tuesday said that it is “not the right point” for U.S. troops to leave Iraq, but he added that he hoped the U.S. would not remain there indefinitely.