British warplanes carried out airstrikes in Syria early on Thursday, hours after Parliament voted to authorize air attacks against Islamic State group targets there.
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The British fighters will be working in coordination with over half a dozen allied nations fighting Islamic State in Syria, including France, the US, Australia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, after joining the fight against the group in Iraq past year. “It is complex, it is hard what we are asking our pilots to do”, Cameron said in a televised statement.
The operation to degrade Islamic State will require patience and persistence, David Cameron has warned, as RAF warplanes mounted their first strikes against the extremists in their Syrian heartlands.
The British jets took off from Britain’s Akrotiri base in Cyprus.
The Ministry of Defense described the strikes as successful.
There will be “strong support from our allies” for the action, the PM said.
The additional planes were six Typhoon fighters and two Tornados, he said.
After more than 10 hours of tense debate, members of parliament voted in favour of the air strikes, by 397 to 223.
Britain joined the US-led bombing campaign against ISIL in Syria on Thursday, with air strikes beginning just hours after a decisive parliamentary vote.
A senior Government source said targets would be taken out “as and when they present themselves”.
They deployed four jets, which took off from the Akrotiri air base in Cyprus.
Mr Jones, who has also publicly clashed with the recently-appointed co-chair of Labour’s defence review Ken Livingstone, said: “What annoys me is that because of his position – right from the start he has not wanted to so anything about the issue – we have failed again to properly interrogate the Government”.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov were also attending the meeting.
If this is not delivered within two years, as planned by the Vienna peace talks, “that won’t mean that we give up and go home”, he said.
Six key targets within the oil field were smashed by RAF Paveway IV bombs.
Defense Secretary Michael Fallon told the BBC that the airstrikes hit the Omar oil fields in eastern Syria, and dealt “a very real blow at the oil and the revenue” which helps finance ISIS militants and propaganda.
His spokesman said: “The President of the Republic salutes the first British air operations over Syria this morning after the yesterday’s vote obtained by a large majority in parliament”.
The mood surrounding the airstrikes changed following the Paris attacks in November, claimed by ISIS, that killed 130 people.
Cameron has pledged that Britain joining air strikes on Syria will be matched by a major diplomatic push to resolve the crisis.
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“What was really important about the vote last night was that it confirmed that Britain is a serious ally”, he said.
