Deal agreed for Australian forces to deploy in Iraq, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says

Updated

Australia has reached a deal with Baghdad for the deployment of about 200 of its special forces to assist Iraqi troops in their fight against Islamic State (IS) militants.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told reporters in Baghdad she had met top officials to hammer out a deal allowing Australian commandos who have been waiting in the United Arab Emirates to deploy to Iraq.

"I have finalised an agreement for a legal framework to enable our special forces to be deployed here," Ms Bishop said as she wrapped up a two-day visit.

"It will be a matter for our military to determine when our special forces will be deployed, so it will be an operational matter from now on."

I have finalised an agreement to enable our special forces to be deployed (in Iraq) Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop

Ms Bishop said the special forces mission would be to "advise and assist the Iraqi government in building up the capacity of the Iraqi security forces".

During her trip, Ms Bishop reiterated that Australian forces would be deployed in an advisory capacity and that Canberra had no plans to send ground troops to fight alongside Iraqi forces.

The agreement came a day after Iraq's appointment of interior and defence ministers which ended a security limbo that had been seen as an obstacle to coordination in the fight against IS.

Liberal MP Stuart Robert has told the ABC's Capital Hill there is now "no legal impediment" to Australia's special forces moving into Iraq.

"They'll move in fairly smartly," he said.

"It'll now come down to some base logistics and some operational matters but they'll be moving fairly quickly now."

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said last week that special forces had not entered Iraq and had been waiting in the UAE since mid-September because Baghdad had not offered them formal legal protections.

Australia was one of the first nations to join the US's aerial campaign against IS, which controls large parts of Iraq and Syria and is increasingly seen as a global threat.

Bombings hit Baghdad mosque, military convoy

Meanwhile, a suicide bomber killed 19 in Baghdad on Sunday as an ambush halted an advance by Iraqi forces on Baiji, a key northern city controlled by IS fighters.

The suicide bomber wounded 28 others outside the Shiite mosque, where people were attending a funeral service, a police officer and medical official said.

Baghdad has witnessed a surge in bombings in the past month, most of them claimed by IS, as the government, headed by prime minister Haider al-Abadi, seeks traction in its effort to subdue Sunni parts of the country that IS has seized.

Baiji, which is adjacent to the country's largest refinery, continues to be in the hands of the government despite a siege by Islamic State militants.

A military operation, launched in the early hours of Saturday, was snarled when an armoured vehicle blew up near the security forces' convoy in a village 20 kilometres south of Baiji, officers said

The blast killed four soldiers and wounded seven.

"The attacker surprised our forces as he was driving a military armoured vehicle. We thought it was our vehicle," said an army major participating in the operation.

"We are planning to ... secure a key highway and to stop the daily attacks of terrorists on the Baiji refinery," he added.

Iraqi forces have protected the Baiji refinery since June despite being surrounded on all sides after the army imploded in the north in the face of a major IS blitz.

AFP/Reuters

Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, defence-and-national-security, government-and-politics, federal-government, army, defence-forces, australia, iraq

First posted