New front in war on terror

BARACK Obama will order airstrikes against terrorists in Syria in a bid to ­“degrade and ultimately destroy” IS militants.

BARACK Obama will order US airstrikes against terrorists in Syria for the first time in a bid to ­“degrade and ultimately destroy” Islamic State militants.

The President’s announcement yesterday came as Tony ­Abbott said he would attend a meeting of the UN Security ­Council in New York this month to discuss the threat from Islamic State with Mr Obama and other world leaders.

The domestic spy agency, ASIO, is expected to issue formal advice to the government today recommending that Australia’s terrorist threat level be raised from medium to high, the first such change in the nation’s history.

The move by Mr Obama to ­extend US airstrikes into Syria — announced on the 13th anniver­sary of the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington — means Australian warplanes and SAS troops could also soon be ­operating in Syria if the US ­requests combat assistance, ­although the Prime Minister said yesterday that no such request had yet been made.

“A specific request for military assistance in the form of air capability, in the form of military advi­sers could come,” Mr Abbott said.

“It could come, but it hasn’t yet come, and if it does come it will be dealt with in the normal way.”

So far, the Australian air force has conducted humanitarian aid drops in Iraq and landed weapons to Iraqi and Kurdish forces near the Islamic State frontlines, but it has not joined in US and British airstrikes against the terror group.

BARACK OBAMA’S SPEECH

Iraq’s ambassador to Australia, Mouayed Saleh, said yesterday that his country would have “no problem” if Australia joined airstrikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

“Australia is doing a great job and giving us great support in fighting terrorism,” Mr Saleh said.

“We need to tackle these terrorists at their root, from where they came, and they came from Syria.”

In an address to the nation to explain America’s strategy for combating the rampaging Islamic State, Mr Obama described the Sunni terror group as a “cancer” posing a threat to the Middle East and to the world.

“Our objective is clear: we will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy,” he said.

Mr Obama had baulked at US military involvement in the Syrian conflict, but said Islamic State was a terror group “unique in their brutality” and had “no vision other than the slaughter of all who stand in its way”. He said the US would lead a broad coalition against ­Islamic State and confirmed the campaign would no longer be confined to specific humanitarian aims, but be a sustained military campaign to destroy the terror group using Western air power to support Iraqi and Kurdish troops on the ground.

The US will send 475 more milit­ary advisers to Iraq to help with training, intelligence and equipment for Iraqi forces, but Mr Obama confirmed US combat troops would not be sent there.

“These American troops will not have a combat mission; we will not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq,” he said.

Mr Obama said the US would step up its efforts to stem the flow of foreign fighters into and out of the Middle East.

Many hundreds of foreign citizens, including about 60 Australians, are thought to be fighting with Islamic State, which this year spilled across the Syrian border and now controls about one-third of Iraq as part of its self-declared caliphate. In a statement to ­announce his New York visit, Mr Abbott said Islamic State posed a “very real threat” to the safety of Australians. “I fully support President Obama’s call for action and Australia will work with our international partners to combat this evil menace,” he said.

“I will discuss with President Obama and other leaders the ­urgent need for strong inter­national co-operation to combat ISIL and other extremist groups.”

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop declared last night that “doing nothing” would be far riskier than taking part in the US-led coalition and that the government “stood ready” to play a military role.

“This mission so defined to date by President Obama is of course risky,” Ms Bishop told ABC’s 7.30. “(But) the risk of doing nothing I believe outweighs the terrible risks associated with going into this strategy to defeat (and) destroy ISIL. That surely is an aspiration that nations around the world would wish to achieve.”

Greens leader Christine Milne warned the government against following the US into a “multi-year horrendous quagmire with no end in sight”.

The government has been told to expect classified advice from ASIO as early as today, amid deepening concerns that a small number of Islamic radicals now have “settled intentions’’ to conduct terrorist attacks in Australia.

The lifting of the alert level to high will come just two days after 180 police raided nine addresses across Brisbane as part of a sweeping counter-terrorism operation aimed at stopping would-be foreign fighters from travelling to Syria. The raids resulted in two men being charged.

One, Omar Succarieh, 31, was the brother of Ahmad Succarieh, who last year became Australia’s first suicide bomber after he detonated a truck bomb at an army checkpoint in northeast Syria.

The Australian has been told that Mr Abbott is expected to ­announce the alert-level change today.

While authorities are unaware of plans to attack specific targets, they are of the view that a handful of extremists are committed to conducting some type of attack and that their intentions have evolved beyond idle talk.