Iraq crisis: Scott Morrison defends plan to supply arms and ammunition to Kurdish Peshmerga; US strikes near Mosul Dam; UN to send investigators

Updated

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has rejected suggestions Australia is bypassing the Iraqi government in supplying weapons to Kurdish troops in the country's north.

As US air strikes against Islamic State (IS) fighters continue, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has confirmed arms shipments to Peshmerga fighters would begin "in coming days".

Mr Abbott, who has described Islamic State as a "death cult", this morning said the world should be grateful for America's actions in Iraq.

Australia's supply plan will see C-130 aircraft fly firstly to the capital Baghdad for customs clearance, before heading to Kurdish-controlled Erbil.

The planes will then land to hand over the weaponry, which will include mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

Iraq's ambassador to Australia, Mouayed Saleh, has said the arms and weapons should be given to Iraq's government.

But Mr Morrison said he was hopeful the arms shipment would help the Peshmerga forces defend against further IS advances.

"It is being done in coordination in partnership with the government of Iraq in accordance with proper processes to ensure that we can assist those who are trying to stop the murderous advance that we are seeing in Iraq," he told 7.30.

"I think the initial attempt here is to shore them up in the positions where they are and to stop the incursions that could obviously flow if they were to fall. I think that's fairly self-evident.

"The Government is not getting ahead of itself. We're taking this one step at a time and acting in a proportioned and sober way."

Mr Morrison defended suggestions Australia is not dealing directly with Baghdad.

"Of course you cannot move arms into another sovereign country without their support and participation and involvement, and certainly we wouldn't be doing that," he said.

"We have the appropriate arrangements in place and we're doing it in accordance with those arrangements."

World should be grateful for Obama's actions: Abbott

Meanwhile, the United States carried out another round of air strikes against IS, also known as ISIL, whose militants are battling Iraqi and Kurdish forces near a major dam in northern Iraq.

The Mosul Dam, just north of the city of the same name, has become a focus of fighting between jihadists and Kurdish forces since the US launched an air campaign last month.

Mr Abbott this morning said the air strikes have hindered the advance of IS, and Mr Obama's actions have been wise and just.

"He hasn't been trigger happy, he hasn't rushed in, he has been very careful about this," he told Macquarie Radio.

"I think that's to his credit because the last thing I think anyone would want to do is rush into another difficult conflict in the Middle East."

US Central Command said US jets had continued their bombardment of IS positions on Sunday and Monday (local time).

"The strikes destroyed three ISIL trucks, severely damaged another, destroyed an ISIL armed vehicle, and destroyed a mortar position near the Mosul Dam," the military said in a statement.

"All aircraft exited the strike area safely."

Since US aircraft went into action they have carried out 123 separate strikes, more than half of them in defence of the dam, and have helped Kurdish and Iraqi troops reverse some recent IS gains.

The siege of Amerli, where more than 15,000 Shiite Turkmen were surrounded by militants for months, was on Sunday lifted by a joint force of Iraqi troops and Shiite militiamen backed by US strikes.

Australian aircraft dropped 15 pallets of food, water and hygiene packs into the town as part of a multinational humanitarian mission.

'We are facing a terrorist monster'

United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has also thanked nations which are taking action to address the security threat.

Speaking to reporters in New Zealand this morning, Mr Ban said it is important for the UN Security Council to discuss ways in which the international community can act in a more concerted way.

But he said "when a situation really blows out," as in Iraq, it is "really important to contain the further spread of political instability and security instability".

His comments came after the UN agreed to send investigators to Iraq to examine crimes being committed by IS on "an unimaginable scale", with a view to holding perpetrators to account.

"We are facing a terrorist monster," Iraq's human rights minister Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani told the UN Human Rights Council, which adopted a resolution tabled by Iraq and France at an emergency sitting of the 47-member state forum in Geneva.

The Council aims to send 11 investigators, with a total budget of $US1.18 million, to report back by March 2015.

IS militants have driven more than 1.2 million people from their homes this year, according to the UN. At least 1,420 people were killed in sectarian violence in Iraq in August alone.

UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Flavia Pansieri said there was "strong evidence" both Islamist fighters and Iraqi government forces have killed civilians and committed atrocities in the past three months of fighting.

"The reports we have received reveal acts of inhumanity on an unimaginable scale," she said.

ABC/wires

Topics: government-and-politics, unrest-conflict-and-war, world-politics, iraq, australia

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