Iraq News

Denmark allows its soldiers to pursue ISIL in Syria

Danish troops fighting in Iraq will now be able to cross into Syria as part of the coalition against the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL), AFP reported Friday (January 20th).

The defence ministry said in a statement that Denmark's parliament had authorised special operations soldiers "to perform their tasks in the Iraqi-Syrian border area".

"The fight against ISIL is an important foreign and security policy priority for the government," Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen told the Ritzau news agency after parliamentary discussions in Copenhagen.

Samuelsen said the move came in response to the coalition's request that Denmark, a NATO member, send troops to Syria, but did not reveal how many troops would be sent or where they would be deployed, nor when.

Denmark has so far provided the coalition with 400 military personnel, including 60 special forces troops, as well as seven F-16 warplanes -- four of them operational at any one time -- and a C-130J transport plane.

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