Germany eyes bigger role in fight against IS in Syria

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.

“France was struck to the bone by the horrific attacks by the IS but we know that this inhumane rage can hit us or other societies at any time too”, said Ursula von der Leyen, announcing the military support.

A day after Merkel pledged in Paris to “soon” decide how to help battle the ISIS in Syria, she met cabinet ministers in charge of security ahead of afternoon meetings of the major parties’ parliamentary groups.

“Germany will be a more active contributor than it has been until now”, Henning Otte, defence expert for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) said in a statement on Thursday.

Germany earlier committed 650 soldiers to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali and more troops to train Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in Iraq.

Germany plans to send Tornado reconnaissance jets to support the fight against the ISIS in Syria, the defence spokesman of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives said today.

German officials said that Merkel saw the bigger German role as a necessary price to pay in exchange for Hollande’s continued support in the refugee crisis.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is poised to ask parliament to back the deployment of Tornado reconnaissance aircraft to Syria, according a senior official from her caucus.

Von der Leyen told German television later on Thursday that Germany was not at war because it is not fighting a sovereign country but a “murderous gang”, referring to Islamic State.

“There are risks. It is a unsafe operation, no doubt”. The leader of the opposition Left Party, Sarah Wagenknecht, denounced that move by saying that it would provoke terrorists to carry out terrorist attacks in Germany. “However there are also defense mechanisms set up from the coalition, which has been running strikes to get annually and we are aware that not one aircraft was downed”, she said.