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British Airstrikes Syria: Royal Air Force Attacks ISIS-Linked Oilfield In

Previously, the British contingent participated in strikes on Iraq but not Syria.

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He said the aim was to strike “a very real blow on the oil and revenue on which Daesh depends”.

Tornado bombers took off from the RAF Akrotiri air base in Cyprus and made strikes on targets in Syria, the source said.

Caption + Two British Tornados warplanes fly over the RAF Akrotiri, a British air base near costal city of Limassol, Cyprus, Thursday, Dec. 3, 2015, as they arrive from an airstrike against Islamic State group targets in Syria.

Defence secretary Michael Fallon said eight additional British aircraft are now heading to join the bombing raids against ISIS.

Cameron has been criticized for stepping back from the world since he took the top job in 2010, particularly after he lost a 2013 vote in parliament on military action against Assad’s government.

The Tornados took off from RAF Akrotiri an hour after MPs voted in favour of launching airstrikes in the war-torn country. However, the mood changed following the recent massacre in Paris in November, which, aided by a divided Labour Party, gave the prime minister an opening to reverse the decision from two years ago.

Mr Corbyn questioned whether air strikes would contribute to a peaceful settlement for Syria and warned that they could increase the possibility of terror attacks in Britain. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn opposed the bombing but was challenged from within his own party by foreign affairs spokesperson Hilary Benn.

US President Barack Obama and French leader François Hollande welcomed the British air strikes.

Speaking before the debate, the embattled socialist claimed “more and more Labour MPs are becoming more and more sceptical” of Mr Cameron’s plans for war.

The US-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist threats, said “Islamic State (IS) supporters on Twitter erupted in threats toward the United Kingdom and other Western countries” following the vote.

“It will not make a big operational difference”, said Malcolm Chalmers of the Royal United Services Institute, a research organization specializing in security, according to the Times.

The motion before parliament asked MPs to approve “military action, specifically air strikes, exclusively against Isil [Isis] in Syria” as part of the global coalition against the Islamist militants.

The strikes at the Omar oil field came only hours after Britain’s Parliament authorized military action in Syria against IS.

The RAF has been carrying out operations against IS in Iraq since a year ago.

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“Before our aircrew conducted their attacks, as is normal they used the aircraft’s advanced sensors to confirm that no civilians were in the proximity of the targets, who might be placed at risk”.

Liam Fox MP