“In the hundreds of air strikes that the RAF has carried out in Iraq, we have had absolutely no civilian casualties reported”, Group Captain Richard Davies, Tornado pilot and station commander at RAF Marham, said in a statement.
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“This strikes a very real blow at the oil and the revenue on which the Daesh terrorists depend”, Defense Secretary Michael Fallon told the BBC, using the Arab acronym for IS.
President Obama welcomed the British move and said the coalition would work “to integrate them into our coalition air tasking orders as quickly as possible”. A Ministry of Defense spokesman said the planes had conducted strikes in Syria and details about their targets would be provided later on Thursday. Yes, he is weakened in the eyes of many of his parliamentary colleagues, but many of them did not vote for him in the first place and do not like what he is doing with the leadership. The main target was an ISIS-operated oil field in Eastern Syria.
The mission will include sending six Tornado reconnaissance jets, a frigate to help protect the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, refuelling aircraft and up to 1,200 military personnel.
Sixty-six Labour MPs ignored pleas by their leader Jeremy Corbyn to oppose further military action and voted for air strikes helping to deliver a Government majority of 174.
“There are plenty more of these targets throughout eastern, northern Syria which we hope to be striking in the next few days and weeks”, Fallon said.
A recent Daily Mail poll shows Corbyn is the “most unpopular new party leader ever”, and that unpopularity was witnessed as 76 of Corbyn’s 229 broke rank voting in favor of the strikes.
Both the U.S.-led coalition and Russian warplanes have struck the extremists’ oil facilities and Russia has drawn heated worldwide attention to the issue by accusing Turkish authorities of profiting from oil trade with IS – allegations Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has strongly denied.
“It must be treated with the utmost seriousness – and respect given to those who make a different judgment about the right course of action to take”.
RAF Akrotiri has been used as a launchpad for attacks on Islamic State targets in Iraq for just over a year, and late on Wednesday Britain’s parliament broadened its scope for targets within Syria.
I will do so because I do not think the case has been adequately made that extending British air strikes will either defeat ISIL or make us safer here at home.
A stark example of the disunity came as MPs prepared to vote, when protesters from Stop the War, a group previously chaired by Corbyn, chanted “Hilary Benn, shame on you!” outside parliament.
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Cameron has said he wouldn’t seek Parliament’s backing unless he was confident of getting it.
