Germany offers military aid against IS group

Germany will send enough weapons to arm 4,000 Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq battling against Islamic State group fighters, who...

Germany
will send enough weapons to arm 4,000 Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq
battling against Islamic State group fighters, whose advances threaten
to destabilise the Middle East, the defence minister has said.


Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday the equipment will include
armour-piercing weapons like anti-tank rockets, thousands of assault
rifles, hand grenades, mine-clearing equipment, night-vision goggles,
field kitchens and tents.


"The weapons delivery is enough to supply a brigade of 4,000 soldiers," Leyen said.


Breaking with a post-war policy of not sending arms to conflict
zones, Chancellor Angela Merkel says northern Iraq is an "exception"
because of the nature of Islamic State's violence.


"The lives of millions of people, the stability of Iraq and the whole
region and ... due to the high number of foreign fighters, our security
in Germany and Europe are being threatened," read a government
statement after Merkel met some of her ministers to discuss details of
the aid to the Kurds.


"It is our humanitarian responsibility and in the interests of our security to help those suffering and to stop the IS."


Germany, like other European countries, is concerned about the
prospect of war-hardened radicalised Muslims returning home and posing a
domestic security threat.

Germans join IS


German intelligence estimates at least 400 Germans have joined the IS
group. The head of the domestic intelligence agency says there is
evidence that five German citizens and residents have carried out
suicide attacks for jihadist in recent months.


Germany has already shipped humanitarian aid to support Iraqi Kurds
as well as defensive equipment such as helmets and body armour, but no
weapons.


It has sent six soldiers to the general consulate in Arbil, the main city in the Kurdish region, to help coordinate the effort.


The United States is pushing for an international campaign against
the IS, which has seized a third each of Iraq and Syria, declared open
war against the West and has declared a caliphate in the heart of the
Arab world.


Opinion polls suggest the German public has no appetite for getting
involved in the conflict and Merkel has made clear she would not send
combat troops there.


The delivery will take place in several tranches in safe areas not immediately affected by the war, the government said.


Training on complex weapons will take place in Germany, or if that is not possible, near Arbil or in a third country.


The German opposition has warned the weapons could end up in the wrong hands and parliament will debate the aid on Monday.