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| Australia approves strikes against IS in Iraq | Australia approves strikes against IS in Iraq |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The Australian cabinet has given its approval for fighter jets to join the US-led military action against Islamic State targets in Iraq. | |
| Prime Minister Tony Abbott said IS was a "death cult" that had "declared war on the world" and must be stopped. | Prime Minister Tony Abbott said IS was a "death cult" that had "declared war on the world" and must be stopped. |
| IS controls a broad swathe of territory, spanning a borderless stretch of Syria and Iraq. | |
| The UN says the militant Islamists have committed a "staggering array" of human rights abuses. | |
| The US and Arab allies have been bombing IS (also called Isil) targets in Syria and Iraq for the past fortnight. European countries have been attacking only Iraqi sites. | |
| In a widely anticipated statement, Mr Abbott said approving military force was "not a decision the government has taken lightly" but that "Iraq should not be alone" in its fight against the militants. | |
| He said the cabinet had also authorised the deployment of special forces to assist and advise the Iraqi military and warned that the action would continue for "months rather than weeks". | |
| "Yes, it is a combat deployment, but it is an essentially humanitarian mission to protect the people of Iraq and ultimately the people of Australia from the murderous rage of the Isil death cult," he told reporters. | |
| Canberra has already sent 600 troops and six warplanes to a US base in the United Arab Emirates. | |
| Australia's decision to join the military action comes amid a growing concern about the number of Australians involved with IS. | |
| The government believes at least 60 Australians are fighting with terror groups in the Middle East and at least 100 are actively supporting them from home. | |
| Last month, police carried out raids on several addresses in Sydney sparked by intelligence reports that Islamist extremists were planning random killings in Australia. The raids, with at least 800 heavily armed officers, led to 15 arrests. | |
| What is Islamic State (IS)? |