BERLIN (Sputnik) – Germany plans to increase its participation in the US-led coalition in Syria against the Islamic State (known as Daesh in the Arab world and whose activities are illegal in Russia), German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday.
"Since September 2014, we have been a part of the international alliance against the IS… A new point was the direct delivery of arms to the region of conflict for the Peshmerga subunits on the request of the Iraqi government. We will increase this participation in the already existing alliance by using our military components against the IS, but now in Syria," Merkel said after a meeting with New Zealand Prime Minister John Key in Berlin.
The German chancellor added that the government was currently considering launching anti-IS airstrikes upon receipt of a mandate authorizing the military campaign.
An international coalition of 65 nations has been fighting for over a year to defeat IS in Iraq and to a lesser extent in Syria, where Russia has been conducting airstrikes against IS positions at the request of Syrian President Bashar Assad since September.
