Forces draw up plans for extended mission in Iraq
OTTAWA — The Canadian military is drawing up options to extend its mission in Iraq, even as growing political instability and competing foreign interests threaten to plunge the country into another cycle of bloody violence.
The mission, which includes hundreds of specialforces soldiers, transport and refuelling aircraft, a military hospital and counter-explosive experts, recently entered its fifth year and is set to expire at the end of March.
But Brig.-Gen. Colin Keiver, the commander of Joint Task Force-Iraq, said the Iraqi government will continue to rely on Canada and other international partners for the foreseeable future despite the Islamic State’s defeat last year.
“They recognize they need continued assistance in order to ensure security and work on stability and prosperity in Iraq,” Keiver said in a call with reporters on Friday.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in June that Canada would contribute 250 soldiers to lead an expanded NATO training mission in Iraq. The focus will be helping local forces bring peace and stability to the country.
But military planners have started working on proposals for an extension to the rest of Canada’s mission beyond March, which Keiver expects will be presented to cabinet ministers for a decision this fall.
Peace and stability appear a long way off for many Iraqis, due to political infighting and deep ethnic and religious divisions across the country.
Keiver said the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has become a shadow of its former self, thanks to sustained pressure by Iraqi and allied forces, but the militant group that once threatened to take over the whole of the region remains a threat nonetheless.
The country remains without a government four months after parliamentary elections, and there are concerns that tensions among political groups — some backed by the U.S. and others by Iran — will erupt into civil war.