Kerry continues tour of Middle East to drum up support for coalition

Australia became the first country to detail troop numbers and aircraft for a US-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq, as Washington drums up support for global action to counter the terrorist threat.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Sunday that a 600-strong force comprising about 400 air force personnel and 200 special forces soldiers will be deployed to a US military base in the United Arab Emirates.

A number of countries have responded to US President Barack Obama's call to join a coalition against the Islamic State group, but Australia is the first to publicly provide specific troop numbers and details of military hardware for the mission.

Obama is leading an effort to form a coalition of Western allies and Gulf Arab states to take on the extremist group, whose savage methods have included beheading two US journalists and a British aid worker.

An international conference in Paris on Monday that gathers some 20 countries from the anti-Islamic State coalition will seek to divide up the roles between nations with often diverging interests.

"This conference will allow everyone to be much more precise about what they can do or are willing to do," said a French diplomatic source, who did not wish to be named.

Abbott said that along with the troops, Australia will send eight Super Hornet fighter jets, an early-warning and control aircraft, and an aerial refueling aircraft. He said they will be deployed in the coming days.

A task group of military advisers to assist Iraqi and other security forces fighting the militants will form part of the deployment, but Abbott said he had not yet made the decision to commit troops to combat action.

"I have to warn the Australian people that should this preparation and deployment extend into combat operations, that this could go on for quite some time," he told reporters in the northern city of Darwin.

Abbott said Australia does not intend to operate in Syria.

Obama announced his plans in a prime-time address on Wednesday to build an alliance to root out the Islamic State group in both Syria and Iraq, plunging the US into two conflicts in which nearly every country in the Middle East has a stake.

US Secretary of State John Kerry is touring the Middle East to try to secure backing for the plan, and on Thursday won the backing for a "coordinated military campaign" from 10 Arab countries - Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and six Gulf states, including rich rivals Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

US outlines goals

As the US works to assemble a coalition against the IS, the White House is trying to make clear what a successful outcome would be.

Obama's chief of staff Denis McDonough put it this way: The militants no longer would threaten the US or its allies in the Mideast, no longer would add followers and no longer would threaten Muslims.

McDonough appeared on Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press".

Reuters - AFP - AP

(China Daily 09/15/2014 page12)