 In June 2014 a small number of <unk> personnel were deployed to Iraq to protect the Australian embassy when the security of Baghdad was threatened by the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive . Later , in August and September a number of RAAF C @-@ 17 and C @-@ <unk> transport aircraft based in the Middle East were used to conduct <unk> of humanitarian aid to trapped civilians and to <unk> arms and munitions to forces in Kurdish @-@ controlled northern Iraq . In late September 2014 an Air Task Group ( <unk> ) and Special Operations Task Group ( <unk> ) were deployed to Al <unk> Air Base in the United Arab Emirates as part of the coalition to combat Islamic State forces in Iraq . <unk> with F / A @-@ <unk> Super <unk> strike aircraft , a <unk> @-@ <unk> Multi Role <unk> Transport , and an E @-@ <unk> <unk> Airborne Early Warning & Control aircraft , the <unk> began operations on 1 October . The <unk> is tasked with operations to advise and assist Iraqi Security Forces , and was deployed to Iraq after a legal framework covering their presence in the country was agreed between the Australian and Iraqi Governments . It began moving into Iraq in early November . In April 2015 a 300 @-@ strong unit known as Task Group <unk> was deployed to Iraq to train the regular Iraqi Security Forces . <unk> were extended to Syria in September 2015 . 
