The Hayes and Harlington MP hit back at Hilary Benn by comparing his Syria bombing speech to Tony Blair’s disastrous plea for the Iraq War.
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U.S. President Barack Obama praised the move of Britain and claimed that the coalition would surely work “to integrate them into our coalition air tasking orders as quickly as possible”.
RAF Akrotiri has been used as a launchpad for attacks on IS targets in Iraq for just over a year, and late on Wednesday Britain’s parliament broadened its scope for targets within Syria.
The British contribution still forms only a tiny part of US-led “Operation Inherent Resolve”, which has been bombing Islamic State targets in both Iraq and Syria for more than a year with hundreds of aircraft.
“That strikes a very real blow at the oil and the revenue on which the Daesh terrorists depend”, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon told the BBC. He says he does not believe extending action against ISIS will be effective in defeating them, or make Britain safer.
A statement from the Ministry said: “Carefully selected elements of the oilfield infrastructure were targeted, ensuring the strikes will have a significant impact on Daesh ‘s ability to extract the oil to fund their terrorism”. If authorised by Parliament, attacks in Syria may start within days.
Prime Minister David Cameron kicked off over 10 hours of scheduled debate by urging MPs to “answer the call” from the UK’s allies and authorize air strikes against IS targets inside Syria.
Following the November 13 Paris attacks that killed 129 civilians, France dropped 20 bombs and struck 30 targets in the Syrian city of Raqqa.
Despite Corbyn’s protests, the vote is over.
Two more Tornados and six Typhoons have been despatched to region from their bases in the United Kingdom, doubling the strike force at RAF Akrotiri on Cyprus which has been spearheading the UK’s attacks on IS – also referred to as Isil, Isis or Daesh. We would be going ahead without an adequate road-map or a clear strategy.
Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn accuses Cameron of leading a rush to war, and has appealed to Labour lawmakers who favour military action to think again.
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“It will not make a big operational difference”, said Professor Malcolm Chalmers of military think-tank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). An impromptu Economist poll published Thursday shows that of those surveyed, 47 percent are against the air strikes, 42percent are in favor and 11 percent are undecided. “We know who in Turkey are filling their pockets and allowing terrorists to earn money by selling oil stolen from Syria”, he said in his annual state of the nation address. And it is why as we have heard tonight, socialists and trade unionists and others join the worldwide brigade in the 1930’s to fight against Franco.
