Canadian troops operating in east Mosul as mission extended to June
OTTAWA — Canadian special forces have taken a more active role in the battle for Mosul, where weeks of bloody fighting have failed to dislodge the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
National Defence revealed the shift on Friday as the Liberal government announced it was extending the current mission in Iraq until the end of June.
The hope is that the battle for Mosul will be over by then, at which point the government will have a better handle on the long-term needs in Iraq and change Canada’s contribution as required.
“There is nobody at this juncture that can really determine or predict exactly what will happen and how it would happen,” said Gen. Jonathan Vance, Canada’s chief of the defence staff.