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In Ottawa meanwhile, Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney had a similar message for those incensed by ISIS. “The best way to fight terrorism is to support our national law enforcement or national security agencies and eventually get involved with them.”

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Mr. Hillier, formerly a corporal in the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, is a volunteer with the 1st North American Expeditionary Force, a private organization that is providing aid to anyone who wants to help the Kurds in their fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham.

In the Nov. 26 battle, shortly after he arrived in in northern Iraq, Mr. Hillier had one main objective when he reached the town of Tel al-Ward: To take the hill.

Inside the bunkers at the top of the hill were ISIS militants, said Mr. Hillier, who was with the Kurdish Peshmerga.

Describing his role in the fight, Mr. Hillier said, “I manoeuvred the ground, and engaged the enemy as I was trained to do.”

“I’m glad I didn’t wear a helmet or armour, because a lot of these guys don’t,” Mr. Hillier said. “It would have made keeping up with the front units difficult.”

He called the Kurds “amazing, brave fighters.”

During the firefight, he said one of the Kurds beside him was shot in the face.

“I dragged him to cover,” he explained.

Mr. Hillier reportedly applied a pressure bandage to the fallen Peshmerga, which was the most he could do at the time. He and at least one other Kurd have video evidence of the event. One of the videos has surfaced online and Mr. Hillier claims to have caught the whole thing on a GoPro camera.