Dutch military intervention against ISIL

Dutch F-16 fighter jets, executing air attacks on tactical locations of ISIL in Iraq since October 2014, are being coordinated by the American Central Command (CENTCOM) and the Joint Forces Air Component Command in Kuwait.[17] The Dutch forces operate from Shaheed Mwaffaq Air Base in Jordan.[21] The Dutch conduct an average of one or two sorties per day;[22] by 17 November 2014, Dutch F-16s had dropped 75 bombs on ISIL targets in Iraq.[22]

The first update to Dutch plans concerning the war against ISIL was a 15 December 2014 letter from the government to Parliament.[23] The letter did not indicate whether ISIL's military force had been broken since September, providing only two bits of information on ISIL activity: "the Syrian moderate opposition" in Aleppo "suffered from ISIL activity" (without explanation), and in Kobanî ISIL was battling Syrian Kurds.[23] No questions were asked by the Dutch Parliament if the September 2014 purposes had been achieved or approached.[24]

As part of an international coalition now consisting of "more than 60 countries" which met on 3 December 2014 in Brussels, the Dutch aims remained as described in September: stopping ISIL's advance and breaking its military force.[23] Its strategy had expanded to include unspecified military support of the moderate Syrian opposition.[23] According to the government in February 2015, for Dutch purposes the "moderate Syrian opposition" meant some groups which were part of the Free Syrian Army (FSA).[25] Dutch material support remained the same as in September: F-16 attacks in Iraq to destroy ISIL headquarters, storage depots, manufacturers of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), vehicles and troops.[23] The country's legal justification remained the same.[17][23]

In June 2015, the Netherlands decided to continue its participation in the allied war against ISIL until October 2016.[26] As of that month, 575 Dutch airstrikes had been carried out in Iraq in 1,000 sorties over more than 475 missions.[27]

On 29 January 2016, the Netherlands decided to intensify its contribution to the fight against ISIL with bombings in Syria.[28][29] Militarily, this included supplying non-lethal support to the Iraqi forces and the Iraqi Peshmerga forces; arming the Peshmerga forces, and F-16 air attacks in Syria on strategic ISIL targets on ISIL supply lines from eastern Syria into Iraq (avoiding air attacks which would benefit the Syrian Assad government).[29][28][30] Parliamentary opposition to the escalation from the Socialist Party (15 seats), GroenLinks (green-left) (4 seats), Partij voor de Dieren (Party for the Animals) (2 seats), Group Kuzu/Öztürk (2 seats) and representative Norbert Klein was larger than it had been in September 2014.[31]