File Photo of Australian PM Tony Abbott.
Australia said Wednesday it would extend its air campaign against Islamic State militants from Iraq into Syria following a request from the United States.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the IS group had to be defeated not just in Iraq, where Australia's six RAAF/A18 combat jets and two support aircraft are already active, but also in neighbouring Syria.
"Destroying this death cult is essential, not just to ending the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East but also to ending the threat to Australia and the wider world," he told reporters in Canberra.