CANBERRA, Australia — Australian warplanes will soon resume airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria after operations were suspended as a precaution because a U.S. fighter jet shot down a Syrian warplane earlier this week, the defense chief said Wednesday.
The Defense Department had said Tuesday that the six F/A-18F Super Hornets based in the United Arab Emirates had been suspended from Syrian operations.
Australian Defense Force Chief Mark Binskin said operations were halted while the Australians examined what was happening in what he had described as a “complex piece of airspace” over Syria.
“It won’t be long before you start to see the operations again,” he told reporters in the Australian capital, Canberra.
Defense Minister Marise Payne said Australian “force protection is uppermost in our minds” in deciding when to resume missions over Syria.
Binskin said the jet fighters had been occupied recently supporting Iraqi security forces in retaking the city of Mosul, so the suspension had little effect on their operations.