Germany bolstering military presence in Kurdistan Region

MAINZ, Germany – Germany said it is bolstering its military presence in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region and deploy jets in the fight against ISIS, following a French plea to EU allies after the deadly bombings in Paris.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and ministers decided on extending the German military mission in the war against the Islamic State.

“Not only will we bolster our training mission in northern Iraq but we will, among other things, make a contribution to the fight against ISIS terror with Tornado reconnaissance jets,” Henning Otte, defense expert for Angela Merkel’s CDU party, said on Thursday. 

“Germany will be a more active contributor than it has been until now,” he added.

The German decision follows a plea by French President Hollande for help from his EU allies, after 130 people were killed in terrorist bombings in Paris claimed by ISIS.

Just a day after the attacks in Paris, Merkel said: “This attack on freedom is not only aimed at Paris. We are all targets, and it affects all of us, for that reason we will respond together.”

And former Belgian prime minister and now head of the Liberal faction in the European Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt, tweeted on Wednesday that a European military coalition is indispensable for the security of European citizens.

He said that will be the start of a real foreign and defense community in Europe, adding that this coalition will break the stalemate in Europe and lead to the eradication of ISIS and a political solution for Syria, without President Bashar al-Assad.

For a long time now, several European countries try to forward the idea of a united European army. Amongst those are Germany, France, Belgium, Luxemburg and some others.

Earlier this year Jean Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, demanded a European army, saying that it would make Europe more credible in terms of security and foreign policy.

After the horrific pictures of ISIS’ war crimes last year, Germany decided to send military personnel to the Kurdistan Region to provide the Kurdish Peshmerga with much needed military training.

It is also part of a handful of nations that directly supply Kurdish troops with weapons, to increase their efficiency in the war against ISIS.

After the decision to send Tornado jets to Iraq and Syria, the German government is also considering sending a frigate and refueling planes as part of the mission, coalition sources have said.