Turkey seeks to extend mandate for Iraq, Syria incursions

The request from the US stems from its recognition that the base of the Islamic State forces must be attacked more effectively, and frequently.

He said the US has made its position about the YPG clear to Ankara, calling the force a “credible reliable partner on the ground in the fight against ISIL in northern Syria”.

The US-led air campaign has helped blunt the advance of the ISIL group.

“I should say that while there is a little difference between the legalities of air strikes on either side of the border, there’s no difference in the morality”. “It is a border over which logistics for ISIL and fighters cross, and so we’re looking for them to do more in that regard as well, and we’re in active discussions with them in that regard”.

The Prime Minister phoned Opposition Leader Bill Shorten this morning to tell him he had received a formal request from the Americans.

Abbott said the government had yet to decide on the request, although it is thought the United States does not make such official requests without first gaining an undertaking that they will succeed.

Several coalition air strikes in northern Syria were launched around the time of the attack.

“What we have been seeing on an nearly daily basis is the continued lure that this terrorist group, this incipient terrorist state is providing to misguided and impressionable young Australians”.

“The contribution of Australia, while always welcome, isn’t a game changer one way or the other, in part there’s a zero-sum gain”, Vice Admiral Johnston said.

Extending the military campaign against IS while the Assad regime remains in power and engaged in a war with its own people will simply perpetuate the chaos and brutality that marks Syria and much of Iraq. In a media briefing this week, chief of joint operations Vice Admiral David Johnston said the government had not provided any advice on whether Australian forces would start operating in Syria.

Pyne said Australian aircraft were already refuelling coalition fighter jets carrying out bombing missions inSyria.

He said conducting “combat operations in Syria would be going well beyond the remit of the current legal framework”.