"I do wonder whether we are actually in the early days of the next long war ... I sense with some despair that we probably are," he said. Chief of Army, Lieutenant-General David Morrison says the war against Islamic State will be a long one. Credit:Andrew Meares In a separate interview with Fairfax Media, he expanded on his remarks. "We've had now 15 years of war and while it's been in Iraq and Syria and Afghanistan ... it doesn't take too much to discern common threads that link all of that. "That leaves you with the question, doesn't it? If that's our recent past, is our near future going to look all that different? My view is that it won't.

"My view is there'll be no operational pause, that we will be committed to military operations, maybe with an emphasis on sea or air or sometimes on land, as almost part of business-as-usual." Illustration: Ron Tandberg He cited a book by the respected American author Philip Bobbitt that argues that World Wars I and II, followed by the Cold War, were all one "long war". While stressing there were differences with the Middle East conflicts, he said these might be seen in the same light. As General Morrison spoke, aircraft from the US, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar were finishing their bombing raids over Syria. The participation of the Arab states is hugely significant because it represents the first time Sunni Muslim nations have attacked IS, an extremist Sunni organisation that has received funding from donors in those nations.

US President Barack Obama – who chairs a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York on Wednesday – has said a broad coalition of support from nations in the Middle East was vital to the success of routing Islamic State. The strikes hit IS "fighters, training compounds, headquarters and command and control facilities, storage facilities, a finance centre, supply trucks and armed vehicles", according to a US statement.. Multiple targets in Raqqa, the unofficial capital of Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliphate and home of its headquarters, were struck by fighter jets, bombers and drones, as well as 47 Tomahawk missiles launched from US ships in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Positions near the Iraq border and north around Aleppo were also targeted. However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Islamic State's headquarters had been largely evacuated ahead of the strikes, with separate reports saying militants were tipped off by surveillance drones that had been circling in preceding days.

Even so, the monitoring group reported that dozens of IS fighters had been killed or wounded. Syria's regime – which the West wants toppled, but with which it shares a common enemy in IS – was notified of the strikes but its consent was not sought. The attacks follow recent IS gains in Iraq and Syria, including the capture of an Iraqi military base, Camp Saqlawiya, that resulted in the deaths of between 40 and 300 soldiers, depending on the account. An offensive by IS fighter on Kurdish communities in northern Syria had led to up to 130,000 refugees flooding across the Turkish border in recent days. Prime Minister Tony Abbott stressed Australia was not involved in the Syria strikes and commended Mr Obama's "measured and careful leadership of international efforts to confront this menace".

Mr Abbott maintained his previous stance of avoiding ruling out future involvement by Australian forces in Syria, saying rather that they were "not involved in the current military strikes against terrorist targets in Syria". Amid concerns that the conflict could drag on for years, Mr Abbott told the Coalition party room: "We have modest ambitions, minimal involvement. We are absolutely committed to working only in coalition. The West cannot save the world single-handedly ... The heavy lifting on the ground will not be done by us." Also on Tuesday, Attorney-General George Brandis released the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Foreign Fighters) Bill, which will create new offences for "advocating terrorism" and for entering or remaining in a "declared zone" overseas. The maximum penalty for visiting a declared zone is 10 years' in jail "reflective of the heightened threat to Australia currently emanating from overseas conflict zones," the explanatory memorandum to the bill states. A person will be asked to prove with evidence that they were there on "official duties", including for the government or United Nations, visiting family or working as a journalist.

Loading It will be up to the foreign affairs minister to mandate which locales are "declared zones". Follow us on Twitter