Australia’s defence minister says Islamic State militants will hide in towns and Iraqi security forces will need to root them out

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Islamic State (Isis) militants in Iraq “will adapt very quickly” to an expanded campaign of air strikes by embedding themselves in towns, Australia’s defence minister has said.



David Johnston made the prediction on Monday as the Australian Defence Force (ADF) confirmed two RAAF F/A-18 Super Hornets had completed their first armed combat mission over northern Iraq without firing on any targets.

Johnston said RAAF aircraft would deploy on an operation and wait to be assigned targets, but there were a large number of coalition partners and aircraft participating in air strikes.

“It may be that from day to day, time to time, no such targeting is specified and in that instance our aircraft come home,” he told the ABC.

“We’re ready up in the air, ready to go, ready to be deployed, ready to assist the Iraqi security forces as and when required. Sometimes it won’t be required.”

Johnston acknowledged the potential for Isis extremists to adapt to the expanded air strike campaign by presenting fewer targets to the air forces.

“I think that’s pretty certain that they will adapt very quickly not to be out in the open where the Iraqi security forces can call in an air strike.”

The embedding of Isis militants in towns was “a much more difficult proposition and I think we’ve started to see adaptation already”, Johnston said.

“It was always going to be that the Iraqi security forces would have to step up and go into these towns and clean them out,” he said.

In a separate interview on Sunday, Johnston said Isis could be “extremely adaptive” and Iraq could be “quite a long campaign”. The situation would “get more difficult before it gets easy” and the ADF would take care to avoid causing civilian deaths, he said.

On Monday, Johnston said he could not provide an update on the 200 Australian special forces members who were expected to play a role advising and assisting Iraqi and Kurdish security forces in the fight against Isis.

The minister said he was “not aware” of the “current circumstances” with respect to the legal authorities for sending in the special forces to battalion-level headquarters.

“I’m expecting that when we do deploy them they’ll be deployed with all of the lead authorities that are necessary, as we always do when we deploy in a foreign country,” he said.

“We’re deploying at the invitation of the Iraqi government and indeed my meeting with prime minister [Haider] al-Abadi, it was very clear that he was very grateful and welcoming of our assistance and when we do deploy – and we won’t talk about when [but] it’ll be advised post-facto – we’ll do so with all of the legal authorities that are necessary.”

Asked about past incidents in which elements of the Iraqi army had fled battles, Johnston said part of Australia’s role would be to ensure members had confidence in their commanders and the necessary training.

“In the medium to long-term we’ll be looking to shore up their confidence, to provide them with enablers, to provide them with logistical support and planning more broadly so they can build their confidence and go back and do the job that they effectively are charged with,” he said.

Tony Abbott has previously predicted that Australia’s engagement in Iraq would cost about $500m per year, but the prime minister said this would be dealt with in the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook (Myefo) to be published in December.

The foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, last week made a public stand against a reported option to make further cuts to foreign aid to pay for the Iraq commitment and extra funding for national security agencies. The finance minister, Mathias Cormann, refused on Sunday to rule out the option of increasing taxes.

Johnston said on Monday it was too early to put a cost on the ADF role in Iraq.

“One of the principal areas of expense is the value of the munitions that will be deployed. Obviously fuel for particularly the transport aircraft is an element, but we’ll address that going forward without speculation in Myefo in December and then in the budget in May,” he said.

“We don’t need to get ahead of ourselves on this. This is a bipartisan deployment for very very good reason. The nexus between Australians’ security here and what is happening in the Middle East is very clear in my view. The cost element is something that we’ll work through in due course.”

Labor reiterated its support for the Iraq deployment, but said it would not “give the government a blank cheque” on the method used to fund the mission.

The shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, said the opposition would assess any proposed funding decisions to determine whether to support them.

“We’ll look at them on the basis that we’ve looked at their other proposals – fairness, budget responsibility – and the government’s going to need to do a whole lot better than they did in the May budget if they’re looking for the Labor party’s support for new initiatives to finance national security measures,” Bowen said on Monday.

The ADF said two RAAF F/A-18F Super Hornet aircraft had conducted an “air interdiction and close air support mission over northern Iraq” on Sunday.

“The Super Hornets were on-call to attack targets as identified,” the ADF said in a statement.

“On this occasion the aircraft did not use their munitions and have returned to base to disarm and prepare for future sorties.

“The Australian Air Task Group’s KC-30A multi-role tanker transport supported the Super Hornets while the E-7A Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft also flew over Iraq.

“The flights were completed without incident and all aircraft have returned safely to Australia’s main support base in the Middle East.”