Australia To Send Military Supplies To Iraqi Kurds

Australian aircraft will join a multinational airlift of supplies, including military equipment to the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq to face the Islamic State led militants, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Monday.



Abbott said that Australia has no intention of committing combat troops on the ground, but "we're not inclined to stand by in the face of preventable genocide either".



This involvement has been at the request of the Obama administration and with the support of the Iraqi government, Abbott said speaking in the House of Representatives. "American, British, French, Canadian and Italian aircraft will also be involved".



The Prime Minister said that so far, there has been no request for military action itself, but if such a request comes "it would be considered".



"Australia is not a country that goes looking for trouble but we have always been prepared to do what we can to help in the wider world," he said.



Abbott said that so far, Australian aircraft have participated in humanitarian airdrops to people trapped on Mount Sinjar and to the besieged inhabitants of the northern Iraqi town of Amerli.



Iraqi Kurdish security forces, called Peshmerga, and Iraqi central Government forces are facing Islamic State militants (known also as Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) ), which have driven an estimated 1.2 million Iraqis from their homes .



United States, Germany, Canada, Italy, etc. are also helping the Peshmergas with arms and munitions. Separately, The U.S. has conducted dozens of airstrikes on IS forces since August 7.



 - Australia threatened



At least 60 Australians are fighting with terrorist groups across Iraq and Syria and they are supported by about 100 more, Abbott said warning that many of them will seek to return to Australia.



"They will return accustomed to kill," the Prime Minister said.



The Prime minister said that around two thirds of Australians who returned from fighting with terrorist groups in Afghanistan a decade or so back subsequently became involved in terrorist activities here.



He stressed that "the threat is extremism – not any particular community. The target is terrorism – not religion".



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