BERLIN // Lawmakers on Friday approved plans for Germany to take on a direct role in the battle against ISIL in Syria, answering France’s appeal for help after the deadly Paris attacks.
Parliament agreed to the mandate for the deployment of Tornado reconnaissance jets, a frigate and up to 1,200 troops by an overwhelming majority of 445 votes in favour and 146 against.
The green light for the mission that could become Germany’s biggest deployment abroad comes three weeks after militants killed 130 people in a series of attacks in Paris.
The atrocities prompted France to invoke a clause requiring EU states to provide military assistance to wipe out the ISL group in Iraq and Syria.
A French presidential document showed that the country’s military has also flown reconnaissance and intelligence missions over Libya, including areas controlled by ISIL, and more are planned.
“Other intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance flights are also planned,” the document said.
Welcoming the German parliament’s decision, French president Francois Hollande said it is “another example of the solidarity between France and Germany.”
Mr Hollande visited the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle in the eastern Mediterranean off Syria where it is being used to conduct air strikes on ISIL targets.
A broad coalition of 60 countries has been battling ISIL since August 2014, although involvement in Syria has been more limited with some Western nations wary of how military action could actually end up serving president Bashar Al Assad’s regime, which they view as no longer legitimate.
But reticence seemed to have melted away following the Paris attacks, with Britain becoming the latest country to join the US-led bombing campaign over Syria on Thursday.
After repeatedly ruling out the use of “boots on the ground”, US president Barack Obama also agreed to send as many as 100 special forces to Iraq, with a mandate to carry out raids inside Syria.
US secretary of state John Kerry even said on Friday it might be possible for the Syrian government and rebel forces to cooperate against ISIL without Mr Al Assad having first left power.
However, Mr Kerry said it would be “exceedingly difficult” to achieve this if rebel forces that have been fighting against Mr Al Assad for more than four years did not have some confidence that the Syrian leader would eventually go.
In the Netherlands, which has been bombarding the ISIL in Iraq, the government too is coming under pressure to widen the aerial campaign to Syria.
Even in Germany, where there has traditionally been reluctance to engage in military missions abroad, the government’s decision to take direct action in Syria has been largely met with support.
An opinion poll in Die Welt newspaper on Friday showed broad public backing of 58 per cent of people surveyed in favour of the military deployment while 37 per cent were against.
The support came despite a large majority of 63 per cent believing that the risk of a terror attack on German soil will rise as a result of Bundeswehr involvement in Syria.
Germany’s justice minister Heiko Maas said the case for deployment was watertight legally.
“The Germans can be certain that the deployment to Syria neither violates international law nor the constitution,” he said.
“We must stop this terrorist gang of murderers. That will not be achieved with military action alone, but neither would it be achieved without,” he said.
The package approved by parliament includes six Tornado aircraft which have no offensive fighter capability and are specialised in air-to-ground reconnaissance.
A German frigate will be deployed to protect the Charles de Gaulle, from which French fighter jets are carrying out bombing runs, and the tanker aircraft could refuel them mid-air to extend their range.
A date has not been set for the deployment which is estimated to cost $142 million, although Germany and Turkey were already working this week towards a deal to station the Tornados at the southern Turkish airbase of Incirlik.
Separately, Germany has also pledged to send 650 soldiers to Mali to provide some relief to French forces battling militants in the west African nation.
But the opposition warned that Germany is being forced to make a weighty decision too hastily.
“We are being made to decide in three days if Germany would once again be dragged into a war. We do not want to be dragged into a war at the speed of a Tornado,” the Left party’s Petra Sitte told parliament.
Defence minister Ursula von der Leyen acknowledged that “this is a dangerous deployment, a difficult deployment”.
Meanwhile, at least 26 civilians were killed across Syria on Friday, nearly a third of them children.
At least 11 of the victims, including four children, were killed in government air strikes on the central opposition-held town of Talbisseh, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Another 11 civilians died in air strikes on parts of Eastern Ghouta, a large rebel stronghold east of Damascus.
According to the Observatory, those raids left dozens wounded or unaccounted for in the towns of Sabqa, Kafrbatna and Jisreen.
Government forces regularly bombard Eastern Ghouta, a populated suburb of Damascus largely controlled by the powerful Jaish Al Islam rebel group.
In the southern province of Daraa, four children were killed when the regime bombarded the town of Hara.
* Agence France-Presse, Reuters
