Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to use his parliamentary majority on Monday to extend Canada’s military campaign in Iraq for up to 12 months and authorize airstrikes in Syria.
The governing Conservatives say the air attacks are necessary to deny the Islamic State a safe haven from which to conduct terrorist activities.
Opposition parties are against the move, saying it will plunge the Canada deeper into a war that has no clear end-game. They also fear increased risk of Canadian pilots being shot down and captured by Islamic State fighters.
The Conservatives partially framed the need for military strikes against ISIL targets as necessary to protect Canadians, given the potential for ISIL ideology to radicalize people in this country.
On Sunday Defence Minister Jason Kenney said that after six months of bombing by the U.S., Canada and other allies, Islamic State fighters have withdrawn its heavy equipment from Iraq to eastern Syria, where President Bashar Assad’s regime has virtually no presence.
In an interview on U.S television on Sunday, Mr. Assad said the Islamic State group has been expanding since the U.S.-led coalition began its airstrikes on the group in Iraq and Syria last year.
Mr. Assad said IS has been gaining more recruits with some estimates showing “1,000 recruits every month in Syria.”
He added that IS has established a presence in Libya and that militant groups in Egypt and Yemen have claimed allegiance or loyalty to the group.
The Islamic militant group controls about a third of Iraq and Syria in a self-declared caliphate.
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