Mosul Raqqa: Mosul and Thursday u.s

mosul raqqa: A second day of meetings is scheduled for Thursday, according to The Waterloo Record. U.S. officials said the militant group forces had squeezed into the Iraqi city of Mosul and its Syrian stronghold, Raqqa. Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion and Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan were in Washington on Wednesday, where they and representatives from dozens of other countries heard that the fight against ISIL was going better than expected. Preparations are currently underway to liberate Mosul, and while the effort isn't expected to be easy, success would eliminate the last real vestige of ISIL presence in Iraq. But he did describe the pending battles for Mosul and Raqqa as the "final push" in the military campaign. "We also need to keep in mind that even though Daesh will be defeated in that region, we want to make sure that the next step is also looked at," he said, using another name for ISIL. "That we look at the political situation. Sajjan, who said Canada will deploy up to 60 military personnel to a hospital in northern Iraq, wouldn't say how long he expects the fighting to last. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.