Netherlands to send F-16s and personnel to help US-led coalition in fight against IS

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Defence & Security News - Netherlands
 
 
Thursday, September 25, 2014 10:07 AM
 
Netherlands to send F-16s and personnel to help US-led coalition in fight against IS
The Dutch government has decided to send six F-16 fighter jets to Iraq to help the US-led international coalition in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher said Wednesday, September 24.
     
The Dutch government has decided to send six F-16 fighter jets to Iraq to help the US-led international coalition in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher said Wednesday, September 24.
Dutch F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jets
     
"The Netherlands will make six F-16s available for the first phase of the campaign, for one year," Asscher said as quoted by Agence France-Presse. The six F-16 fighter jets that likely will be deployed in Jordan and could be operational within a week. The Netherlands will also send up 380 military staff, of whom 130 are instructors who will train Iraqi and Kurdish forces.

Earlier in the day, the international coalition carried out airstrikes against IS insurgents in Syria. The strikes targeted the Syrian cities of Ayn al-Arab, Serrin and Qara Qozak and the suburbs of Aleppo, all under control of the militants.

Earlier in the week, the United States and its Arab allies Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates hit the IS, Jabhat al-Nusra and other terrorist targets using aircraft, drones and Tomahawk missiles, killing over 70 Islamic State fighters, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.