Germany plans to send Tornado reconnaissance jets to support the fight against the Islamic State jihadist group (ISIS) in Syria, the defense spokesman of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives said Thursday.
"Germany will play a more active role than before," said the defense policy spokesman of her conservative CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Henning Otte, in a statement.
While the government had not yet issued a statement, Otte said Germany would go beyond its current arms supplies and training to Iraqi Kurdish forces combating ISIS.
"We are not only strengthening the training mission in northern Iraq, but will step up our commitment in the fight against IS terror, among other things with RECCE reconnaissance Tornados," he said.
Otte said that "the IS can only be defeated militarily, therefore no idea must be ruled out as we engage in the fight against Islamist terrorism."
"Islamist terrorism is a threat to Germany and to world peace. Together with France and all other countries that oppose Islamist terror, we will provide everything necessary to the battle."
He added that all requests by the alliance against ISIS and by France "must be examined with an open mind."