Harper Calls for Extended Libya Mission

With the three-month deadline set to pass next month, the PM says Canada will keep planes flying over Libya.

Following the conclusion of the G8 summit in Deauville, France, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he intends to extend Canada's role in the Libyan war beyond the three-month mandate agreed to in Parliament. The matter is up for debate in the House of Commons next month, and with a majority, Harper's all but certain to continue Canada's involvement. Canadian CF-18 fighter jets have dropped more than 240 bombs on Libya in the mission, which has unofficially been broadened from merely protecting civilians from Moammar Gadhafi's forces to applying military pressure on the leader's regime to get him to step down. Harper cited the unanimous support from every head of state at the summit, including Russia's Dmitri Medvedev, as justification for extending the mission.