Canada to take part in air strikes against Islamic State

Canadian fighter jets will take part in U.S.-led air strikes against Islamic State militants operating in Iraq for up to six months, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Friday.

Harper told the House of Commons Canada also planned to send an air-to-air refueling aircraft and two surveillance planes to the region. He did not say how many jets would take part in the campaign.

Harper said Canada would not deploy ground troops against the Islamic State group, which is also known as ISIL.

The plan is subject to a vote in Parliament next Monday and is bound to be approved since the ruling Conservatives have a majority.

Both main opposition parties made clear they would vote against the plan on the grounds that the increasingly unpopular Harper, who polls show is set to lose an election scheduled for next year, had not given enough details.

"We intend to significantly degrade the capabilities of ISIL, specifically, its ability either to engage in military movements of scale or to operate bases in the open," said Harper.

The United States has been bombing Islamic State and other groups in Syria for two weeks with the help of Arab allies, and hitting targets in Iraq since August. European countries have joined the campaign in Iraq but not in Syria.

Earlier on Friday Australia said it would contribute jets to the campaign.

"The government is seized with the necessity of avoiding a prolonged quagmire in this part of the world," said Harper, adding that Canada could quickly end the mission.

Harper said Canadian jets would not strike targets in Syria until it had the full support of Damascus.

In 2003, Canada's then Liberal government refused to take part in the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Harper, leader of the opposition at the time, backed the campaign, a fact that his main rivals noted on Friday.

Thomas Mulcair, leader of the official opposition New Democrats, said "Canada for our part should not rush into this war". Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau said it was far easier to enter a war than leave one and said his legislators would vote against the deployment.

Polls show Canadians' appetite for foreign military missions has dropped after 10 years of involvement in Afghanistan up to 2011, during which 158 soldiers were killed.

Canadian aircraft attacked targets in Libya in 2011 as part of a campaign to enforce a United Nations no-fly zone.

Trudeau had on Thursday recalled Harper's support for what he called the Iraq fiasco.

"Why aren't we talking more about the kind of humanitarian aid that Canada can and must be engaged in rather than trying to whip out our CF-18s and show them how big they are?" he said.


REUTERS