Australia PM says ‘military assets’ deployed to Middle East

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Thursday that “military assets” had been deployed to the Middle East as a contingency plan.

Countries have rushed to evacuate their citizens from the Middle East this week after US-Israeli strikes on Iran that killed its supreme leader Ali Khamenei and sparked a regional war.

Albanese told the Australian parliament the government had sent six crisis response teams to the region.

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“And we’ve already deployed military assets as part of our contingency planning earlier this week,” he said.

“I thank those Australians going into a dangerous situation in order to help their fellow Australians,” he added.

The Australian leader did not give further details about the nature of the assets, though local outlet SBS News reported they were planes.

AFP contacted Albanese’s office and the Australian defense ministry for further information.

Australia has said it has 115,000 citizens in the region.

New Zealand also ordered two military aircraft to the Middle East on Thursday in preparation for evacuations of its citizens from the region.

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