Australia became the first country to detail troop numbers and aircraft for a US-led coalition fighting Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq, as Washington drums up support for global action to counter the terrorist threat.
Australia Prime Minister Tony Abbott yesterday said a 600-strong force comprising 400 air force personnel and 200 special forces soldiers would be deployed to a US military base in the United Arab Emirates.
A number of countries have responded to US President Barack Obama’s call to join a coalition against Islamic State, but Australia is the first to publicly provide specific troop numbers and military hardware for the mission.
Obama is leading an effort to form a coalition of Western allies and Gulf Arab states to take on the extremist group, whose savage methods have included beheading two US journalists and a British aid worker.
Abbott said along with the troops, Australia would send eight super hornet fighter jets, an early warning and control aircraft, and an aerial-refuelling aircraft. He said they would be deployed in the coming days.
A task group of military advisers to assist Iraqi and other security forces fighting the militants would form part of the deployment, but Abbott said he had not yet made the decision to commit troops to combat action.
“I have to warn the Australian people that should this preparation and deployment extend into combat operations, that this could go on for quite some time,” he told reporters in the northern city of Darwin.
Abbott said Australia did not intend to operate in Syria.
Obama announced his plans in a prime time address on Wednesday last week to build an alliance to root out Islamic State in both Syria and Iraq, plunging the US into two conflicts in which nearly every country in the Middle East has a stake.
US Secretary of State John Kerry is touring the Middle East to try to secure backing for the plan, and on Thursday won backing for a “coordinated military campaign” from 10 Arab countries — Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and six Gulf states, including rich rivals Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
However, a lack of detail on commitments from NATO allies and Turkey’s reluctance to play a frontline role have highlighted the difficulty of building a willing coalition for a complex military campaign.
Britain has said it supports US air strikes and British Prime Minister David Cameron has said repeatedly that Britain itself has ruled nothing out except combat troops on the ground.
Like Australia, Britain has delivered humanitarian aid, carried out surveillance, given weapons to Kurds and promised training in Iraq.
France has confirmed its commitment to use military force in Iraq, but it was unclear whether France would join strikes in Syria.
Germany has said it will not take part in air strikes.
US officials say Kerry is also seeking permission to make more use of bases in the region and fly more warplanes overhead.
The region has been galvanized since June, when Islamic State fighters, already in control of much of Syria, swept through northern Iraq, seizing cities, slaughtering prisoners and proclaiming a “caliphate” that would rule over all Muslims.
The White House says the group is a threat to the West as well, attracting fighters from around the world who could return to carry out attacks at home.
The US resumed air strikes in Iraq last month for the first time since the withdrawal of the final US troops from the country in 2011.
The raids followed major gains by Islamic State, which has declared an Islamic caliphate in areas it controls in Syria and Iraq, as well as a series of grisly videos showing the beheading of captured Westerners.
Islamic State stirred new outrage on Saturday with a video purporting to show the beheading of British aid worker David Haines.
Cameron called it “a despicable and appalling murder” and vowed to bring the killers to justice.
Describing the Islamic State as a “death cult,” Abbott said the beheadings had made him “more resolved than ever to do what we reasonably can to disrupt, degrade and if possible, destroy this movement”.
The Australian government on Friday raised its domestic terror alert to “high” for the first time, citing the likelihood of terrorist attacks by Australian citizens radicalized in Iraq or Syria.
Up to 160 Australians have either been involved in fighting there or actively supported it, officials said, and at least 20 have returned to Australia after fighting in the Middle East and pose a national security risk.
“These terrorists and would-be terrorists are not targeting us for what we have done, or for what we might do — they are targeting us for who we are,” Abbott said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in