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That could be in part because of the uncertainty around U.S. plans for Syria.

Dawe, who said he has not received any orders from the government to start packing up, said his troops are now helping Iraqi forces with counter-insurgency missions to eliminate leftover ISIL fighters around Mosul.

The city was liberated in July 2017 after three years of occupation.

While he wouldn’t get into specifics, citing operational security, Dawe said Canadian troops are continuing to operate under the same “advise and assist” mandate that has governed their mission in Iraq since the start.

That includes providing Iraqi forces with information and intelligence and helping them plan missions against ISIL weapons caches and hideouts.

“This is very different than what we were doing with our Kurdish partners along the Kurdish defensive line where, by the very nature of the work we were doing there, we had to be â¦ physically proximate to advise and assist in a defensive line,” he said.

“This is a little bit different because the Iraqis are being very proactive and they’re going after the insurgents in a way that is quite surgical.”

Questions and concerns have been raised in the past about the conduct of some Iraqi security forces, which includes allegations of torture, kidnappings and extrajudicial killings, but Dawe said the units that his troops are partnered with have been carefully screened.

“I can tell you we spent a lot of time in this space in terms of ensuring that the people with whom we partner are professional and meet an appropriate standard,” he said. “And that they abide at all times by all of the appropriate sort of conventions.”