Germany to Join AWACS Surveillance Missions against IS

Germany Wednesday decided to extend to late 2017 its participation in international military operations against the Islamic State group, saying its forces would join NATO surveillance missions on AWACS planes.

The mandate to deploy up to 1,200 German troops in the anti-IS coalition had been due to run out at the end of this year but was extended and broadened to manning the AWACS, or Airborne Warning and Control System, aircraft.

"The continued and expanded participation in the fight against IS is a key element of German security policy engagement in the region," said a statement after Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet decided to extend the mandate.

Helping the international fight against IS jihadists based in northern Iraq and Syria "counters the immediate and direct danger for Germany, the alliance and the international community," it said.

German lawmakers first authorised the deployment in December 2015, including by flying Tornado reconnaissance missions and aerial refuelling planes, as well as deploying a frigate to help protect a French aircraft carrier.

The extended deployment, which must still be signed off on by parliament, is the Bundeswehr's second largest following its Afghanistan mission.

The German forces are based at Turkey's Incirlik NATO base near the Syrian border.

Turkey last month lifted a months-long ban on German lawmakers visiting the base, which had been sparked by a bitter row of a Bundestag vote in June labelling the Ottomans' World War I-era massacre of Armenians a genocide.