German jets to support mission

The government had agreed on “difficult but correct and necessary steps”, said von der Leyen at a press conference in the Reichstag building, flanked by Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Germany is facing pressure by France, its key ally in Europe, to ease military restraint and step up its contribution to the fight against Islamic State after the Paris terror attacks that killed 130 people on November 13.

Help refuel airplanes Berlin intends to invest four to six Twister jets, supply satellite support and deploy a frigate to secure the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle running airstrikes in Iraq and Syria from the eastern Mediterranean.

The offer will have to be formally approved by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet and supported by parliament, where Ms Merkel’s “grand coalition” has an overwhelming majority. The announcement comes as the French president visits Moscow. “Terrorism is our common enemy”. It still has no plans to join France, the United States and Russian Federation in conducting air strikes in Syria.

The French president said he hoped Germany “can do even more in the fight against Daesh in Syria and Iraq”, using another term for IS, which claimed responsibility for the killings in Paris.

Germany is ready to offer France “any kind of help” in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks, Merkel said alongside Hollande, though she didn’t specify what that might be.

“If the French president asks me to think about what we can do beyond that, then it’s our task to consider it – and we will react very quickly”, Merkel said at that time.

“It’s not possible to fight Islamic State with words; you have to fight them militarily”.

“Risks are present. It is without any doubt a unsafe mission.

But there are also defense mechanisms set up by the coalition, which has been conducting attacks for a year and we know that not a single aircraft has been downed”, Ursula von der Leyen responded to the Wagenknecht’s statements adding that Germany was not at war as it was going to fight not a state but a “murderous gang”.

Germany has already signalled that it will send up to 650 additional soldiers to Mali to provide relief to the French and raise the number of army trainers for Kurdish peshmerga fighters operating in northern Iraq by up to 150.