Australia to take part in US-led strikes in Syria

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has confirmed on that his country will join coalition air strikes against ISIS in Syria and that his country has pledged to take an extra 12,000 refugees in response to the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East.


The prime minister said both the humanitarian response and the stepping up of military measures against ISIS into Syria were in the national interest.

Australia had raised its terror threat to high a year ago, and officials have long been concerned about nationals travelling to fight alongside ISIS or attempting attacks on home soil.

“Destroying this death cult is essential, not just to ending the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East but also to ending the threat to Australia and the wider world,” Abbott said.

The government said the legal basis for extending air operations into Syria was the collective self-defense of Iraq as the militant group did not respect national borders.

“We cannot defeat Daesh in Iraq without defeating Daesh in Syria too,” Abbott said, using the alternate name for the militant extremists who control swathes of Syria and neighboring Iraq.
The focus of the campaign would be on ISIS though, and not the Assad regime, he added.

“We have no legal basis at this point in time for wider strikes in Syria and we don’t intend to make wider strikes in Syria,” Abbott said....
 AFP
alarabiya.net
9/9/15
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Related:

• Australia calls on more European nations to join anti-IS air strike

• Australia's Abbott Warns of Islamic State's 'Global Ambitions'

• Australian troops to aid Iraq in battle against ISIS/ISIL

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• France prepares for anti-Daesh strikes in Syria (François Hollande)

• UK may launch new airstrikes on jihadists in Syria

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