2017-03-27
The Turnbull Liberal government has failed to rule out Australia's involvement in another bombing tragedy in Iraq, the Australian Greens said today.
"The tragedy in Mosul took the lives of more than 200 civilians, the deadliest such attack by far since the US intervened in the conflict in mid-2014, and it ranks among the highest civilian death tolls in an American air mission since the disastrous US-led Coalition sent Australia into war in Iraq in 2003," Australian Greens Co-Deputy Leader and Defence spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam said today.
"Abdulsattar Alhabu, the mayor of Mosul, gave voice to long-held concerns about this military intervention; he said 'the repeated mistakes will make the mission to liberate Mosul from Daesh harder, and will push civilians still living under Daesh to be uncooperative with security forces'.
"The Defence Minister chose her words very carefully when asked today about the tragedy in Mosul, unequivocally ruling out the involvement of Australian bombers, yet she was unable to say the same about our Wedgetail command and control aircraft.
"This should take a couple of phone calls, not a couple of weeks.
"It's difficult to conclude anything other than the government has something to hide," Senator Ludlam said.
Media Release Defence and Veterans Affairs