COPENHAGEN/TRIPOLI: Denmark will commit F-16 warplanes to the fight against Daesh in Syria and 400 military personnel to fight the group in Iraq, Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said Friday.
A majority of political parties in Parliament’s foreign affairs committee expressed support Friday for the government’s proposal, and “the government will on the basis of today’s meeting submit a bill to a parliamentary vote to strengthen the campaign against Daesh,” a statement from the prime minister’s office said.
The vote is scheduled for April 19.
“It is a serious decision to send Danish men and women on a mission in the world’s hot spots. Therefore, I am grateful that the government’s proposal enjoys broad support from the parties in Parliament,” Rasmussen said.
The Danish contribution, which also includes a transport aircraft, would be available from mid-2016.
The 400 military personnel stationed in Iraq will include pilots, support staff and 60 members of the special operations forces.
Foreign ministry spokesman Lars Peter Levy stressed that no Danish ground troops would be stationed in Syria. “That’s right,” he told AFP.
“Right now we’re focusing on the proposal and the proposal includes... F-16s in Syria and sending special forces to Iraq.”
Levy said Denmark’s decision was “both a response from a request from the US and a natural follow-up after we pulled our F-16s out last year.”
Separately, two Italians kidnapped last July in Libya were freed Friday in a raid on Daesh group hideouts in a city near the capital, officials in Libya and Rome said.
“Two Italian hostages were released... in Sabratha after an operation targeting several houses after information reached security forces that Daesh elements were there,” the city’s mayor Hussein Al-Dawadi said.
“They are now at a police station in Sabratha,” 70 km east of Tripoli, he added.
Gino Pollicardo, 55, and Filippo Calcagno, 65, said in a statement released by the Sabratha municipality: “We are free and are relatively well physically but are psychologically exhausted. We urgently need to return to Italy.”
In a video posted on the municipality’s Facebook page, the pair were seen wearing tracksuits, with long beards and disheveled hair.
Pollicardo’s tearful wife told Italian media: “It’s over, I spoke to him on the phone.”
The Foreign Ministry in Rome confirmed the releases, saying that the two “are no longer in the hands of their captors.”
“They are now under the protection of the Sabratha military council and are in good health,” a statement added.
Both were among four employees of Italian construction company Bonatti who were kidnapped in July 2015 in the Mellitah region west of Tripoli.
A majority of political parties in Parliament’s foreign affairs committee expressed support Friday for the government’s proposal, and “the government will on the basis of today’s meeting submit a bill to a parliamentary vote to strengthen the campaign against Daesh,” a statement from the prime minister’s office said.
The vote is scheduled for April 19.
“It is a serious decision to send Danish men and women on a mission in the world’s hot spots. Therefore, I am grateful that the government’s proposal enjoys broad support from the parties in Parliament,” Rasmussen said.
The Danish contribution, which also includes a transport aircraft, would be available from mid-2016.
The 400 military personnel stationed in Iraq will include pilots, support staff and 60 members of the special operations forces.
Foreign ministry spokesman Lars Peter Levy stressed that no Danish ground troops would be stationed in Syria. “That’s right,” he told AFP.
“Right now we’re focusing on the proposal and the proposal includes... F-16s in Syria and sending special forces to Iraq.”
Levy said Denmark’s decision was “both a response from a request from the US and a natural follow-up after we pulled our F-16s out last year.”
Separately, two Italians kidnapped last July in Libya were freed Friday in a raid on Daesh group hideouts in a city near the capital, officials in Libya and Rome said.
“Two Italian hostages were released... in Sabratha after an operation targeting several houses after information reached security forces that Daesh elements were there,” the city’s mayor Hussein Al-Dawadi said.
“They are now at a police station in Sabratha,” 70 km east of Tripoli, he added.
Gino Pollicardo, 55, and Filippo Calcagno, 65, said in a statement released by the Sabratha municipality: “We are free and are relatively well physically but are psychologically exhausted. We urgently need to return to Italy.”
In a video posted on the municipality’s Facebook page, the pair were seen wearing tracksuits, with long beards and disheveled hair.
Pollicardo’s tearful wife told Italian media: “It’s over, I spoke to him on the phone.”
The Foreign Ministry in Rome confirmed the releases, saying that the two “are no longer in the hands of their captors.”
“They are now under the protection of the Sabratha military council and are in good health,” a statement added.
Both were among four employees of Italian construction company Bonatti who were kidnapped in July 2015 in the Mellitah region west of Tripoli.
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