Twilight zone time, France requested help from the Germans.
Germany decided Thursday it could no longer stay on the sidelines of the fight against Islamic State, announcing plans to send Tornado jets and a warship to aid the new international military alliance set on crushing the Islamic State.
The decision to send between four and six reconnaissance jets along with the carrier was made at a meeting on Thursday of senior ministers in Berlin.
The meeting was called by Chancellor Angela Merkel after she agreed at talks with French President Francois Hollande the night before to step up military help in the international fight to defeat the Islamic State.
The planned military action was a necessary strike against the militant terrorists, Merkel told a meeting of lawmakers from her conservative Christian Democrats and their Bavarian-based Christian Social Union allies.
According to media reports, Paris had wanted the Tornados to provide reconnaissance backup for the French military mission against Islamic State, which has claimed responsibility for a night of terrorist attacks in Paris earlier this month that left 130 dead.
Merkel called the meeting in Berlin – which also included Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel and Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen – to consider Germany’s military role in the planned anti-Islamic State coalition being forged by Hollande.
Staying out of the coalition was not an option for Germany if the country wants to keep the terrorist threat at bay, von der Leyen said.
“Everyone can see that the problems will come our way if we don’t take care of them in a timely fashion,” she said. “If we want to fight terrorism and the reasons people are fleeing, then we have to do so locally.”