Australia will send an extra 300 troops to Iraq as the embattled nation seeks to train more forces to seize back key cities held by Islamic State.
The 300 regular forces – who will be fully deployed by June – will be involved in training operations jointly with New Zealand based at Taji, about 30km north of Baghdad.
The move, endorsed by cabinet on Monday and taken to the coalition party room on Tuesday, follows requests from the governments of Iraq and the United States.
Iraq has launched an operation to take back Tikrit, the hometown of former leader Saddam Hussein, with a force of about 30,000 troops and militia supported by air strikes.
About 170 Australian special forces personnel have been training Iraqi and Kurdish military since September and an air task group has been involved in bombing raids.
The special forces personnel will return in September, but may get a new role.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the decision had not been taken lightly but did not represent “mission creep”.
“It is right that we make a prudent and proportionate contribution to this effort to keep Iraq safe, to wrest back control of Iraqi territory from the death cult and, in so doing, to contribute to the safety and security of this country and the wider world,” Mr Abbott said.
He said efforts to date by a coalition of around 60 nations had slowed IS’s advance.
“But Iraq’s regular forces now require support to build their capacity to reclaim and to hold territory,” Mr Abbott said.
He said the conflict in Iraq and Syria had been reaching out to Australia, in terms of terrorist attacks and support for terrorism.
Chief of the defence force Mark Binskin said Daesh had not made any significant territorial gains since October.
“They’ve lost the ability to amass their forces in the open, they don’t fly their flags, their leaders aren’t wearing uniforms,” he said.
“Now more than ever it is important for us to focus on the development of the Iraqi security forces to be able to take and hold their own ground, secure their borders and allow the restoration of governance in their own country.”
Mr Abbott said he could not rule out Australian forces coming under attack but there would be a strong force protection element to the mission.
Asked whether it would be Australia’s last contribution to the Iraq mission, he said: “It would be wrong of me to say that this is the last that we will do here.”
The training mission will be reviewed every 12 months and is initially planned for two years.
He said the Iraqi government had not asked for foreign combat boots on the ground.
The prime minister said American forces had pulled out of Iraq after the last conflict “with the job at best half done”.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, who was briefed on the decision an hour before question time, told parliament Labor would continue to provide bipartisan support for the mission and Australian defence personnel and their families.
“It appears from the information that was provided to us that the commitment most certainly likely accords with Labor’s principles,” he said.
But there had been some “troubling reports” regarding the behaviour of some Iraqi militia groups.
While the military role in Iraq was important, the “swamp of terrorism” could not be drained by this method alone.
“We need a social, political and economic solution,” Mr Shorten said.
“We need to work towards a broader approach and a regional solution.”
Source: AAP