Germany will send Tornado jets to Syria, lawmaker confirms

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany will deploy Tornado reconnaissance jets to support France in the fight against Islamic State militants in Syria, a senior lawmaker for Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives confirmed on Thursday. "Germany will be a more active contributor than it has been until now," Henning Otte, defence expert for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) said in a statement on Thursday. "Not only will we bolster our training mission in northern Iraq but we will, among other things, make a contribution to the fight against IS terror with Tornado reconnaissance jets." Germany is also considering sending a frigate and refuelling planes as part of the mission, coalition sources have said. (Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Writing by Noah Barkin)