Canadian Parliament approves extension and expansion of mission against the Islamic State

TORONTO – Canada's Parliament has approved a one-year extension of military mission against the Islamic State group that includes airstrikes on targets in Syria.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the extension and expansion earlier this month and Parliament voted 142 to 129 on Monday night.

Passage was all but assured as Harper's Conservative government has the majority of seats.

Canada will be the first NATO country, other than the United States, to conduct airstrikes in Syria. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have also done so.

Canadian airstrikes have been limited to IS targets in Iraq thus far. Canada also has 69 special forces soldiers training Kurdish peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq. The IS group controls a wide swath of territory across the Syrian and Iraqi border.