Germany's lower house of parliament overwhelmingly approved Chancellor Angela Merkel's plan to send military forces to support the U.S.-led coalition fighting against the Islamic State group in Syria on Friday. After a week of debate, 445 German lawmakers voted in favor and 146 against, while seven abstained, reported Reuters.
As part of the one-year mission, Germany will deploy up to 1,200 troops, six Tornado reconnaissance jets, a refueling aircraft and a frigate to help protect the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. The effort is expected to cost $142 million, according to Al Jazeera.
German pilots will be authorized to defend themselves, but will not join Britain, France, the U.S. and Russia in conducting offensive airstrikes in Syria.
The forces will operate "in and over Syria where ISIS is operating, on the territory of states whose governments have given approval [to Germany], in the eastern Mediterranean, Gulf, Red Sea and adjoining seas," a statement from the German army said, according to the BBC.
Germany has already been providing arms and military training to Kurdish fighters in Iraq over the past year, but after the terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 130 people last month, France invoked a clause requiring European Union states to provide military assistance to the 60-country coalition, and Germany, one of Europe's least militaristic countries, upped its involvement, according to The Wall Street Journal.
"The attacks in Paris have prompted us to be even more committed in fighting against terror," Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen told reporters.
Norbert Röttgen, head of Parliament's foreign affairs committee, said that the "Paris attacks have forced us in Europe to realize that the Middle East is not somewhere distant like South America."
"It is our neighbor, and we Europeans must take responsibility for this region," he added, according to The New York Times.
Britain joined the U.S.-led bombing campaign last Thursday and U.S. President Barack Obama, despite repeatedly ruling out the use of "boots on the ground," also agreed to send as many as 100 special operations forces into Iraq, with a mandate to also conduct raids inside Syria, according to The Telegraph.
