300 More Australian Troops Will Go To Iraq To Fight ISIS

"Iraq is a dangerous place, and I can't tell you this is risk-free."

Tomorrow, 330 Australian troops will head to the Middle East to boost numbers in the international fight against Islamic State.

CPL Shannon McCarthy / Department of Defence

Most of the soldiers will come from the Army's 7th Brigade, based in Brisbane.

They'll work in a taskforce on a capacity training mission with 100 troops from the New Zealand Defence Force and will be based at the Taji military complex north of Baghdad.

The mission is expected to go for two years.

The Prime Minister says the force will be operational by mid-May. "It is, as I stress, a capacity training mission not a training mission, but Iraq is a dangerous place. It is a dangerous place and I can't tell you that this is risk-free," he said.

9News

Australia joins other countries in the Building Partner Capacity mission including the US, Italy, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands.

Sergeant Hamish Paterson / Department of Defence.

"What we’ll be doing is comparable to what other countries are doing," Tony Abbott said.

“The important thing is to make an effective and meaningful contribution to the security of the wider world because, as I say, this is not just about Iraq; this is about our national security, too.”

Greens senator Christine Milne is critical of the deployment, describing the situation in the Middle East as a "mess".

Christine Milne @senatormilne

@TonyAbbottMHR sending more Aust troops to #Iraq into a mess of Iranian backed Shiite militias and Iraqui govt units accused of war crimes.

03:22 AM - 14 Apr 2015

Others noted the phenomenon of 'flag creep' at the announcement, with a grand total of eight flags behind the prime minister during his announcement.

Overland Journal @OverlandJournal

'Abbott’s announcement that Australia will send more troops to Iraq was made in front of no fewer than eight flags' http://t.co/2vihCMzaoE

02:13 AM - 14 Apr 2015