December 17, 2014 – American forces intervened at Ein al-Asad forcing ISIS to retreat.
December 22, 2014 – American forces deny engaging in ground combat with ISIS.
January 19, 2015 – Canadian SF kill several ISIS fighters after coming under attack.
AP continues the narrative of no American boots on the ground engaged in combat.
Canadian soldiers opened fire on Islamic State group extremists in Iraq during the past week in what was apparently the first ground firefight between Western troops and the militants.
Brig. Gen. Michael Rouleau, commander of special operations command, said Monday the soldiers were visiting front-line positions with Kurdish peshmerga forces when they came under mortar and machine-gun fire. He said the Canadian soldiers fired back in self-defense.