Canada has sent 69 soldiers to northern Iraq to advise security forces fighting Islamist militants in the northern part of the country, the prime minister said Tuesday.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper provided the figure to parliament as opposition parties pressed for clarification of government statements saying "several dozen" special forces personnel had been deployed this month.

The troop deployment followed a US call for a broad international coalition "to degrade, and ultimately to destroy the threat posed by ISIL."

The Islamic State group has taken control of a swath of Syria and northern Iraq and declared the establishment of an Islamic caliphate, amid mass executions and attacks on religious and ethnic minorities.