Australia sends troops to Iraq to protect Baghdad embassy

June 20, 2014 04:20 pm | Updated November 17, 2021 04:32 am IST - Melbourne

Iraqi men line up at the main army recruiting center to volunteer for military service in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, June 20, 2014, after authorities urged Iraqis to help battle insurgents. The campaign by the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State militants has raised the specter of the sectarian warfare that nearly tore the country apart in 2006 and 2007, with the popular mobilization to fight the insurgents taking an increasingly sectarian slant, particularly after Iraq's top Shiite cleric made a call to arms last week. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

Iraqi men line up at the main army recruiting center to volunteer for military service in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, June 20, 2014, after authorities urged Iraqis to help battle insurgents. The campaign by the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State militants has raised the specter of the sectarian warfare that nearly tore the country apart in 2006 and 2007, with the popular mobilization to fight the insurgents taking an increasingly sectarian slant, particularly after Iraq's top Shiite cleric made a call to arms last week. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

Australia on Friday said it has sent a small detachment of soldiers to Iraq to help bolster security at its embassy in Baghdad in the wake of the assault by Islamic militants in the country.

Defence Minister David Johnston said the defence liaison force is being deployed to protect embassy staff and evacuate them if necessary, not to help Iraqi forces battling militants who have seized large swathes of the country’s north in the past two weeks.

He did not confirm how many personnel have been sent for security reasons.

“Should things turn very bad very quickly, we can respond,” he was quoted by ABC News as saying.

Earlier, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said there had been no request for help from Iraq. If there were, he said, Australia would seek to be “helpful”.

“But right now [our priority is], first of all, ensuring our people in Baghdad are safe — that we have the capacity to remove them if necessary [and] to remove them safely if necessary,” he said.

“These people should have no place in our country and we will do our best to keep them out,” he said adding “If they can’t be kept out, they will be taken into detention because we are not going to allow people who are an obvious threat to our safety and security to roam loose in Australia.”

Australia’s decision comes after U.S. president Barack Obama announced U.S. military advisers would help Iraq combat the threat posed by the militant Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group and its Sunni allies.

The Australian embassy was moved into the highly secure green zone in Baghdad in 2004 after a series of car bombings struck near the previous embassy building, ABC News reported.

In 2011, 33 Australian soldiers who guarded the embassy withdrew from the country and a Dubai-based private security firm took over security duties.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.