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COPENHAGEN Denmark's fighter jets, which had been in action in Iraq earlier this year and will return next year, should also have the mandate to bomb Islamic State positions in Syria, the Danish foreign minister was quoted as saying on Sunday following the attacks in Paris.
Denmark had contributed seven F-16 jets in 2014 for the U.S.-led coalition's air strikes against IS and pulled them out in September for maintenance work and to let the crew rest.
"We must get the Danish F-16 fighter planes back as fast as possible. The government wishes that they return with a broader mandate, to make it possible to fight ISIL, wherever they may be - whether on one or the other side of the border to Syria," Kristian Jensen told the newspaper Berlingske.
A foreign ministry spokesman confirmed the comments and said the decision to expand the mandate to Syria would need a parliamentary vote. However, Denmark's participation in the coalition fight against IS has not been controversial.
The fighter jets were due back in the Middle East around the middle of next year.
Denmark suffered its own shooting attack in February, when a radicalised Muslim youth killed two people in two separate attacks.
(Reporting by Sabina Zawadzki and Alexander Tange; Editing by Greg Mahlich)