He told the Press Association: “Last night we saw the RAF Typhoons, which have only just arrived here from Scotland, striking successfully for the first time within 24 hours or so of their arrival, which is a pretty impressive achievement”.
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Thousands of Russian citizens from Chechnya, Dagestan and elsewhere have joined the Islamic State group in Syria. They were using Paveway munitions in an area of oil fields where there was simply oil infrastructure in eastern Syria, a long way from Raqqa itself, down near Iraq.
Typhoons from RAF Lossiemouth and unmanned Reapers were used for the first time on Friday night, alongside the RAF’s Tornados in an effort to cut off the financial supply to Islamic State (IS), which is also known as Isis, Isil and Daesh.
“We must leave all arguments and disagreements behind and make one powerful fist, a single anti-terror front, which would work on the basis of worldwide law under the aegis of the United Nations”, Putin said, addressing lawmakers and top officials gathered in an ornate Kremlin hall.
Cameron has pledged that Britain joining air strikes on Syria will be matched by a major diplomatic push to resolve the crisis. They bring to nearly 32,000 the weapons – majority precision-guided – dropped by fighters, B-1B bombers and drones in nearly 11,000 combat sorties since August 2014, according to statistics compiled by U.S. Air Forces Central Command. But Obama called for calm and said that terrorists and ISIS “only win if we start reacting out of fear”. Moscow has been carrying out a separate aerial campaign against the extremist group since September 30, at the request of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
“There are two sides to the current debate”.
After Islamic State claimed responsibility for both the attacks on Paris and the bombing of a Russian airliner last month, world leaders have striven to bury differences and unite the separate campaigns against the militants. Now the USA itself has taken a unilateral decision to send ground forces to fight the Islamic State on the Iraqi soil.
Mr al-Reis said that on the ground the FSA was fighting “Iranians and Hezbollah and other militias”, rather than Syrian government forces.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has denied the allegations.
Turkey shot down the Russian plane that had reportedly strayed into its airspace and ignored repeated warnings.
The UK’s air strikes are unlikely to change the military balance but the vote handed Prime Minister David Cameron the chance to show Britain’s willingness to add to a Western consensus for taking the battle to militants in Syria.
Labour’s most senior figures have appealed for calm after bitter infighting continued following the party’s split over bombing in Syria.
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30 said it would deploy up to 50 U.S. special forces to Syria to coordinate on the ground with US-backed rebels. That criticism has now been answered: Britain and France are putting greater resources into the fight against terrorist hubs in the Middle East. Even Germany, hitherto reluctant to fire a shot in anger, is pledging new military resources.
