Australian warplanes to begin strikes against Islamic State targets, Prime Minister Tony Abbott says

Updated

Australian warplanes will join air strikes on Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has announced.

Six F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets have been on standby in the Middle East for two weeks in preparation for joining the US-led attacks on IS targets.

The National Security Committee of Cabinet met on Friday morning, followed by a full Cabinet meeting, before the public announcement was made later in the day.

"Cabinet has authorised Australian air strikes in Iraq at the request of the Iraqi government and in support of the Iraqi government," Mr Abbott said.

"Also, subject to final legal documentation, Cabinet has authorised the deployment of Australian special forces into Iraq to advise and assist Iraqi forces.

"I want to stress that only Iraq can defeat ISIL (IS), but Iraq shouldn't be alone and as far as Australia and our allies are concerned, Iraq won't be alone."

Mr Abbott said the mission was "in the interest of civilisation" and warned the deployment "could be quite lengthy".

"Certainly months rather than weeks," he said of the mission's length.

"I want to reassure the Australian people that it will be as long as it needs to be, but as short as it possibly can be.

"It is a dangerous mission, but I am confident that the CDF [Chief of the Defence Force] has put in place all possible measures to minimise risk."

Defence Force Chief Mark Binskin said the air strikes "won't be rushed" and would begin "over the coming days".

He said US led air strikes were having some success.

"We are seeing ISIL react to that and change their tactics. And to be honest with you, what air power does, it stops people being able to mass forces on the ground in a land campaign and that's exactly what we aim to do," he said.

Mr Abbott said while Australia was to begin "combat operations" against the IS targets, it was not "strictly accurate" to describe it as a war.

"We are not in combat against another country," he said.

"We are engaged in combat operations against an insurgency in support of the legitimate government of Iraq."

Major-general warns of long campaign

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said Labor fully supported the Government's actions.

"In the face of the threat, Australia does have a responsibility to join a very broad international coalition both of regional nations and nations more broadly," he said.

"Australia does indeed have a role to play in the global response.

"Labor's support for this important development continues to be underpinned by our key principles which we've enunciated to the Parliament and we will continue to put the national security of our nation ahead of politics."

Retired major-general Jim Molan, who led Australian forces into the last Iraq war, on Friday predicted this would be the start of a long campaign.

"I see it happening fairly fast... [in] the next 24 hours we should see strikes occurring," he said.

"My understanding is that whatever will come out of today may not yet apply to the special forces on the ground somewhere in northern Iraq."

United States forces began strikes against IS targets in Iraq in August, and in Syria last month.

Greens leader Christine Milne said Mr Abbott was blindly following the United States into war.

"He didn't wait to consider Australia's national interest. He didn't have and doesn't have now a strategic plan for Australia's involvement," she said.

Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, federal-government, security-intelligence, defence-and-national-security, air-force, defence-forces, australia, iraq

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