Poland on Wednesday said it plans to send F-16 fighter jets plus 210 soldiers and military personnel to Iraq and Kuwait to join the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State jihadi group.
Up to 60 members of the special forces will be sent to Iraq while 150 soldiers and military personnel will head to Kuwait, according to Poland’s top security official Pawel Soloch.
“There will also be support elements in other countries in the region,” the National Security Bureau chief said, quoted by the Polish news agency PAP.
He did not specify a timeline for the plan, which still needs to be approved by President Andrzej Duda.
Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz however said on Wednesday in Brussels that he hoped that four F-16 jets would land at NATO bases in the Middle East before the Western defence alliance’s summit in Warsaw early next month.
IS seized large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, scattering government and rebel troops with ease, but Washington has marshalled NATO and other allies to help force the jihadists back from key areas.
Most of the 28 NATO member states contribute to the anti-IS coalition individually but the alliance itself as an organisation has no direct role in the campaign.
