Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott made a surprise visit to Bagdad on Sunday as he and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi held talks about strengthening their fight against Islamic militants.
Mr. Abadi asked Mr. Abbott to aid them in stepping up military assistance by increasing Australian military troops to help train and arm Iraqi forces.
In a press conference, Mr. Abbott promised that Australia would provide all the support against terrorism and has determined to boost operations between the two countries.
Mr. Abbott said, "It's a struggle not just for the people of Iraq, and not just for the people of this region, but for the whole world – because the Daesh death cult, the ISIL death cult, has declared war against the world."
He went on, "We haven't just seen millions of people displaced, we haven't just seen tens of thousands of people killed here in Iraq. We haven't just seen the beheadings, the crucifixions, the mass executions and the sexual slavery here in Iraq. We have also seen exhortations from the death cult to people right around the world to engage in acts of terrorism, and even Australia has had its brush with terrorism in recent weeks.
"I want to thank President al-Abadi for the work that he is doing. He has an extraordinarily difficult job."
Last June, ISIS led an attack in Iraq, and have been expanding throughout the country as well as neighbouring places such as Syria.