Australia is preparing to contribute 600 troops and up to 10 military aircraft to the increasingly aggressive campaign against the Islamic State extremists in Syria and Iraq, the government announced yesterday.
While Abbott expected extremists to react to Australia's military deployment to the United Arab Emirates, he noted that 88 Australians were among 202 people killed by bombers on the Indonesian island of Bali in 2002 before Australia went to war in Iraq.
"There is no doubt that those who wish us harm will cite things like this as an excuse, but it's not the reason," Abbott told Australian Broadcasting Corp television.
"This death cult targets everyone and anyone who does not conform to its particular ideology," he added, referring to the Islamic State movement.
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Taufik Andrie, a terrorism researcher at Jakarta's Institute for International Peace Building, told ABC that Indonesian extremists were again talking about targeting Westerners in response to recent US air strikes in Iraq. There have been no major attacks on Westerns in Indonesia since July 17, 2009, when the JW Marriot and Ritz-Carlton hotels were bombed, killing eight and injuring 53.
President Barack Obama announced the more aggressive military campaign last week. Scores of US airstrikes have been launched at select targets in Iraq, and US planes and drones will be gathering intelligence on targets before launching airstrikes in Syria.
Abbott drew a distinction between the current Iraq campaign and 2003 when Australia sent 2,000 troops to back the US and British forces in the Iraq invasion.
"It's not President George W Bush, it is President Obama, a very different president ... Who is rightly and properly slow to reach for the gun and he has put together an extensive coalition including about 10 Middle Eastern countries," Abbott told Nine Network television.