1. Australian military intervention in Iraq
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has announced Australia will send RAAF combat aircraft and army Special Forces advisers to join the fight in Iraq against the Islamic State terrorist group.
He told a press conference yesterday that eight Royal Australian Air Force F/A18 Super Hornet or “classic” Hornet combat aircraft, an E-7A Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft, and a KC-30A multi-role tanker and transport aircraft, along with 600 Australian Defence Force personnel — 400 from the RAAF and 200 from the Army — will be deployed to Iraq within days.
The ABC reports Mr Abbott said: “Again, I stress that this movement is neither Islamic nor a state. It is a death cult reaching out to countries such as Australia.”
2. World leaders’ outrage over beheading
The latest beheading by ISIS, this time of British aid worker David Haines, has provoked outrage across the globe.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott told media the Islamic State’s beheading of Haines “should make all of us more resolved than ever to do whatever we reasonably can to disrupt, degrade and if possible destroy this movement”.
British Prime Minister David Cameron released a statement condemning the slaying as “an act of pure evil”, while US President Obama told a press conference “Those who threaten the United States will find no safe haven.”
3. Missing three-year old
Police are now entering day four of the search for missing three-year old William Tyrell on the NSW mid-north coast.
The little boy, dressed in a Spiderman suit, disappeared from his grandparent’s house at 10.30am on Friday.