On the 2nd of November, on Sunday, CF-18 Hornets conducted Canada’s first combat air strike on ISIL targets. The four targets were located near a dam west of Fallujah and consisted of heavy engineering equipment and vehicles. They were being used to divert water from the Euphrates River to create flooding and displace the population in Anbar province while also denying water to other populations downstream. By flooding certain areas, ISIL forced civilians and Iraqi security force members to use specific roads where they had placed improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. Additionally, the heavy engineering vehicles were being used to develop and enhance their defensive positions, which would have made future clearing operations for the Iraqi security forces more difficult.

You’ll see in the image behind me, ISIL was using the heavy engineering equipment to interfere with the flow of the dam. Our forces worked with the Combined Air Operations Centre, the CAOC, and coalition targeting assets during the approximate four-hour flight. Five-hundred pound laser-guided bombs destroyed and damaged the heavy engineering equipment and vehicles identified and removed them from further employment. The destruction of ISIL’s equipment in this case means that they will not be able to use the Euphrates River against the population in Anbar province. The attacks also assured the removal of heavy equipment necessary to develop those defensive positions I told you about.”