Germany To Step Up Fight Against Islamic State After French Appeal

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany plans to play a bigger role in the fight against Islamic State militants in Syria by deploying Tornado reconnaissance jets, refueling aircraft and a frigate to the region following a direct appeal from close partner France for Berlin to do more.

The decision to commit military personnel and hardware is a shift for Germany, which has resisted such direct involvement in the conflict. It has no plans to join France, the United States and Russia in conducting air strikes in Syria.

Lawmakers from Germany's ruling parties were meeting on Thursday afternoon to discuss the new commitments. German officials said Chancellor Angela Merkel had promised the support, which must be approved by parliament, at talks with French President Francois Hollande on Wednesday.

"Germany will be a more active contributor than it has been until now," said Henning Otte, a member of parliament for Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), who acts as a spokesman for the party on defense matters.

"Not only will we bolster our training mission in northern Iraq but we will, among other things, make a contribution to the fight against IS terror with Tornado reconnaissance jets."

Otte told Reuters that the government aimed to have a draft of the new mandate ready by Tuesday and seek approval from the Bundestag by the end of the year.

German officials said Merkel promised Hollande between four and six Tornado jets and satellite support as well as a frigate to help protect the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, which the French navy has sent to the eastern Mediterranean to support air strikes in both Syria and Iraq.

The moves follow attacks by Islamic extremists in Paris on Nov. 13 that killed 130 people and led Hollande to call for a grand coalition of countries to fight Islamic State.

Germany had already signaled that it would send up to 650 more soldiers to Mali to help the French and raise the number of army trainers for Kurdish peshmerga fighters operating in northern Iraq by up to 150. Last year Berlin agreed to send arms to the Kurds.

But during her Wednesday trip to Paris, Merkel was asked by Hollande to do "even more" and promised to respond soon.

"When the French president asks me to think about what more we can do, then it is our duty to reflect on this and we will also react very quickly here," she said in Paris.

German officials said that Merkel saw the bigger German role as a necessary price to pay in exchange for Hollande's continued support in the refugee crisis.

His Prime Minister Manuel Valls suggested in comments published by several European newspapers on Wednesday, that Europe should stop letting in so many refugees. The remarks were seen by some as a warning to the German chancellor, who is pushing her European partners to accept quotas of refugees.

German officials say winning parliamentary approval for the new military steps should not be difficult given United Nations resolutions on Syria and France's invocation of the European Union's mutual assistance clause after the Paris attacks.

But that did not stop the leader of the opposition Left party, condemning the move and warning that it would raise the risk of attacks in Germany.

"If you send German Tornados to Syria, you only create more terrorists and increase the danger of an attack in Germany," Sarah Wagenknecht said.