KUWAIT CITY—Prime Minister Stephen Harper came to the heart of Canada’s fight against Islamic State extremists to vow his “unconditional” support for the mission, telling troops that by fighting ISIL in Iraq and Syria, they are protecting Canadians at home.

Speaking in a cavernous hangar at a Kuwaiti airbase, Harper told the group of air force personnel that they are facing an “extraordinarily dangerous enemy.”

“Make no mistake: by fighting this enemy here you are protecting Canadians at home,” the prime minister said. “Because this evil knows no borders, and left uncontained, it will spread like a plague.”

He said the group’s goal is to launch an “orgy of violence around the world.

“Acts of brutality and murder, a war waged against everything we hold dear,” Harper said.

From this airfield, which reporters were not allowed to identify, CF-18s fighter jets have flown 548 missions so far, dropping bombs on Islamic State targets several dozen times.

But Harper cautioned that while the Islamic State’s offensive ambitions across Syria and Iraq have been blunted by coalition efforts, extremists are “far, far from beaten.”

“So, we must press on, our resolve undiminished, as I know yours is,” he said.

The Conservative government last fall dispatched a small team of soldiers to northern Iraq to train Kurdish peshmerga fighters. It also sent CF-18s into action bombing Islamic State targets in Iraq, backed by reconnaissance aircraft and an air-to-air refueller.

Harper’s speech was intended as a morale-boosting pat on the back to the troops.

But this speech was equally aimed at Canadians at home as well, to remind them that the Conservatives alone have backed the military mission, a position that will no doubt be highlighted in the coming federal election.

While the Liberals and New Democrats were not mentioned by name, Harper took a veiled shot at the opposition parties, warning that inaction in the face of the Islamic State’s threat is the “worst thing.”

“Some will say we don’t know how effective our actions will be, or if this is the ideal strategy. And how could we?” Harper said.

“But what we do know is this — in the face of this menace, the worst thing we could possibly do is nothing,” he said.

In his speech, the prime minister highlighted his government’s military efforts, its aid contributions and steps at home to give security agencies the “whole range of modern tools” to identify terrorists.

It was a day when Harper relied on rhetoric and imagery to deliver his message. He quoted the national anthem as he told the personnel that they “stand on guard” to make sure the Islamic State threat does not “despoil our home and native land.”

And he spoke against a carefully staged backdrop — two CF-18s packed nose-to-nose with a large Canadian flag strung up on the hangar wall.

There was even a little hockey tossed in as rink stars Paul Coffey and Ryan Smyth, who had accompanied Harper on his trip here, were introduced to the troops.

The Conservatives wasted little time Sunday mining the political value of Harper’s trip, tweeting a picture of the prime minister shaking hands with peshmerga fighters with the comment, “we’re taking the threat of terrorism seriously.”

The prime minister’s surprise weekend swing through the Middle East took him first to Baghdad and then into northern Iraq Saturday for a first-hand glimpse at the terrain where Islamic State extremists have been active. It’s here where Canadian special forces soldiers have been on their training mission.

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On Sunday, he rounded out the visit with stops at the two Kuwaiti airbases home to the Canadian air crews involved in the air campaign.

Gen. Tom Lawson, the chief of defence staff, conceded that the Conservatives’ controversial move to expand the air war into Syria is unlikely to see much action because of the lack of intelligence on possible targets.

Since the government gave the green light to extend bombing to Islamic State targets in Syria in late March, CF-18s have struck just once in that country.

“Since we were authorized to extend our operations into Syria, there has remained more targeting in Iraq,” Lawson told reporters.

“It’s a more difficult operation in Syria,” said Lawson, himself a former fighter pilot.

In Syria, the coalition forces have little information on the ground about the possible position of Islamic State targets.

“It’s a far more complex situation when you’re working in a nation that still has a sovereign government that hasn’t shown you hostility but hasn’t welcomed you in,” he said, referring to Syria.

And the CP-140 Aurora reconnaissance aircraft, which use their optical sensors to track targets, have to keep a “stand-off” distance from Syria to avoid potential threats.

That’s in contrast to Iraq, where coalition forces can count on good information about the movements of Islamic State forces.

“In Iraq now we’ve got Iraqi forces on the ground in various regions of operations against ISIS and we’ve got aircraft like our Aurora that provide really good information that links fighter operations to what’s happening on the ground,” Lawson said.

He said Canadian jets were not part of the U.S.-led air strike in Syria that reportedly killed dozens of civilians on Friday. The U.S. has said it would look into the claims.

Lawson said the targeting process employed by the coalition forces works to ensure the chance of collateral damage is as “low as possible.”

“But even as that bomb is falling on its way to the target, terrible things can happen,” he said. “I think what’s remarkable is how very few incidents of collateral damage have come up as a result of operations.”

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