Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

IRAQ

Danish military mission in Iraq gets green light

The use of a Hercules aircraft and up to 55 military personnel to transport weapons and other military supplies to Iraq has received parliament's approval.

Published: 27 August 2014 20:31 CEST
Updated: 27 August 2014 21:47 CEST
Danish military mission in Iraq gets green light
One of Denmark's Hercules C-130 planes will be used in the mission. Photo: Henning Bagger/Scanpix
As expected, parliament on Wednesday approved Denmark's military contribution to the international campaign against jihadist militants in northern Iraq. 
 
A Hercules C-130J military aircraft carrier will be accompanied by up to 55 individuals, including a logistics team and security personnel. The Danish mission will deliver weapons, ammunition and other military goods to the Iraqi and Kurdish forces fighting the Islamic State, the terrorist organisation previously known as Isis. 
 
“I’m pleased with the broad political support for Denmark’s contribution against Isis in Iraq. Isis is one of the biggest – if not the biggest – threats currently faced by the international community. Our contribution to the ongoing operation will obviously not eliminate Isis but will be used to help the Iraqis to defend Isis’s advances themselves,” Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard said. 
 
According to Air Tactical Command (Flyvertaktisk Kommando), the aircraft will head to Iraq on Thursday.
 
"The plan is to leave [on Thursday] morning. The personnel is ready. They were of course notified in advance and are ready to go," spokesman Lars Skjoldan told Politiken. 
 
The Hercules C-130J will depart from Aalborg Air Base. 
 
The Danish Defence Intelligence Service (Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste) has determined that the Danish mission faces a “high” chance of being fired upon by militants in northern Iraq.
 
Lidegaard added that Denmark will also contribute humanitarian aid, but the United Nations has previously rejected the use of military aircraft for the transport of emergency aid. 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

ISIS

Ex-jihadi housewife jailed in Norway for joining IS

A Norwegian court on Tuesday sentenced a woman who lived as a housewife in Syria to prison for being a member of the Islamic State group (IS), despite not actively fighting herself.

Published: 4 May 2021 20:11 CEST
Ex-jihadi housewife jailed in Norway for joining IS
The Kurdish-run al-Hol camp which holds suspected relatives of Islamic State fighters.Photo: Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP

The Oslo court sentenced the Norwegian-Pakistani woman to three and a half years in prison for “participating in a terrorist organisation” by taking care of her household and enabling her three husbands to fight.

“By travelling to an area controlled by IS in Syria… by moving in and living with her husbands, taking care of the children and various tasks at home, the defendant enabled her three husbands to actively participate in IS fighting,” judge Ingmar Nilsen said as he read out the verdict.

Being a housewife to three successive husbands did not render her a passive bystander, the judge said.

“On the contrary, she was a supporter who enabled the jihad, looked after her three husbands at home and raised the new generation of IS recruits,” he said.

The young woman, who admitted having “radical ideas” at the time, left for Syria in early 2013 to join an Islamist fighter, Bastian Vasquez, who was fighting the regime.

Although she did not take up arms herself, she was accused of having allowed her husbands to go fight while taking care of her two children and household chores.

The trial was the first prosecution in Norway of someone who had returned after joining IS.

“This is a special case,” prosecutor Geir Evanger acknowledged during the trial.

“This is the first time that, to put it bluntly, someone has been charged for being a wife and mother.”

The prosecution had called for a four-year sentence, while the defence had called for her acquittal and immediately appealed Tuesday’s verdict.

The woman’s lawyer, Nils Christian Nordhus, argued that his client had quickly wanted to leave Syria after being subjected to domestic violence.

She had also been a victim of human trafficking because she had been held against her will, he added.

But the judge stressed that she had participated in the organisation “knowingly” and of her own will.

The woman was repatriated to Norway in early 2020 on humanitarian grounds with her two children, including a young boy described as seriously ill.

At least four other Norwegian women and their children are being held in Kurdish-controlled camps in Syria.

SHOW COMMENTS