Only a handful of Canadian civilians have travelled to the Middle East to assist the Canadian military’s fight against ISIS – and one of them may have a Waterloo Region connection.
Farhang Afandi is working for the Canadian Armed Forces in Iraq, as an interpreter.
“He does not hold a military rank or special status but is afforded the professional respect and privileges of a military contract by Canadian military personnel,” a spokesperson for the Department of National Defence told CTV News in an email.
According to a report in The Globe and Mail, Afandi left his home in Kitchener about a year ago to visit family in Iraq, and stayed to assist the military.
The same report quotes Afandi’s friends in Canada as saying they’d never heard any interest in military affairs from the 30-something man.
Lorne Dawson, a University of Waterloo professor and terrorism expert, says translation services are crucial for the Canadian military – which may be why Afandi extended his stay in Iraq.
“I suspect in this case that he happened to be in the right place at the right time,” he told CTV News.
“This may just be lucrative employment for him.”
Dawson says he knows of at least 60 Canadians fighting on behalf of ISIS, and only a handful on the other side.
Afandi is the son of Hamid Afandi, the commander of a regional militia also operating against ISIS.
