Denmark to pull out of Daesh fight in Iraq, Syria

Denmark will not extend military operations of its seven F-16 fighter jets in Syria and Iraq from mid-December after six months in action, the Danish government said today.

Instead the Danish contribution in Syria and Iraq will primarily consist of training and analysis teams, which to a large extent will work closer to Iraqi military units.

“We are pulling our airplanes out as planned. We have offered the coalition extra help with some construction and engineer troops,” Danish foreign minister Anders Samuelsen said after a meeting in the foreign political council.

“It has been assessed whether it would make sense from economical and practical considerations [to extend the mission]…the conclusion has been that it makes no sense, so we just stick to the plan,” Samuelsen said.

NATO member Denmark is part of the US-led coalition, who are fighting as part of “Operation Inherent Resolve” against Daesh, which has declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria. It said when it joined the mission in June it would review the operation after six months.

On Monday, a US military investigation said Danish war planes were involved in a 17 September coalition airstrike, where a series of “unintentional human errors” killed fighters aligned with the Syrian government instead of the targeted Islamic State militants.

The minister made no mention of the incident in his statement.