and into January, 2015, totaling 28 strike missions. It was then reported that Canadian special forces troops, which had been highlighting targets for airstrikes, had engaged in fighting after coming under attack. On 19 January 2015, Canadian special operations forces came under ISIL attack for the first time in Iraq, and returned sniper fire to "neutralize" the threat. Canadians are "enabling airstrikes from the ground," meaning they are actively finding targets for jets flying overhead. On 29 January 2015, Canadian special forces in Iraq came under fire from ISIL forces, causing the Canadian troops to return fire, killing some ISIL militants. On 6 March, a Canadian soldier was killed in a friendly fire incident by Kurdish forces while returning to an observation post. On 8 April 2015, two CF-18s carried out their first airstrike against ISIL in Syria, hitting one of the group's garrisons. From 2 Nov 2014 to 13 May 2015 the Canadian armed forces struck 80 ISIL fighting positions, 19 ISIL vehicles, and 10 storage facilities. On 21 October 2015, Canadian Prime Minister-designate Justin Trudeau informed U.S. President Barack Obama that he intended to withdraw Canadian aircraft from operations over Iraq and Syria but increase training missions on the ground. On 8 February 2016, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the CF-18s would be withdrawn from the bombing mission no later than 22 February 2016. However, the surveillance aircraft and air-to-air jet refueller would continue. In addition, the amount of training troops would triple. Dutch airstrikes On 24 September 2014, the Dutch government announced its participation in "the military campaign" against ISIL which, as they claimed, had been started by the United States, and sent six F-16 fighter jets to Iraq to bomb ISIL. Their motivations to join this war: ISIL's advance in Iraq and Syria, while displaying "unprecedented violence" and "perpetrating terrible crimes against population groups", formed "a direct threat for that region"; ISIL's advance in Iraq and Syria "causes instability at the borders of Europe" which threatens "our own [Dutch] safety". Figures requested by RTL Nieuws in August 2015 showed that the Netherlands was among the most active countries within the coalition, third behind only the United States and the United Kingdom. In January 2016, the Netherlands extended their bombings of ISIL to Syrian territory. By the end of July 2016 the Dutch Air Task Force flew more than 2100 missions and carried out over