Future of Canada’s Iraq Mission Pondered as ISIS Appears Set to Go Underground

Future of Canada’s Iraq Mission Pondered as ISIS Appears Set to Go Underground
A man goes to get water at an internal displaced persons camp for those fleeing Mosul, in Erbil, Iraq, on Sept. 4, 2014. The Canadian Press/Ryan Remiorz
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OTTAWA—Canada’s mission in Iraq is set to undergo another transformation after the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is driven from the city of Mosul, which is expected to see the extremist group turn into a more traditional insurgency.

Senior military commanders have been weighing possible options amid warnings that ISIS will resort to suicide attacks and other terror tactics in Iraq after it loses control of its last population centre in the country.

There is also the question, however unlikely, of whether Canadian troops will end up in Syria, where U.S.-backed rebels have been advancing on ISIS’s de facto capital of Raqqa.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said last week that the Liberal government currently has no plans to deploy forces into Syria, but he left the door open to Canada joining other allies if such a course of action is decided upon.

Right now we do not have, or intend to have, any involvement in Syria.
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan