‘They’ve been making a lot of money out of oil… and their revenue helps to finance their terrorism in Western Europe and is a threat to us in Britain’.
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Extra fighter jets have been sent to the UK’s Cyprus base, RAF Akrotiri, to launch bombing and reconnaissance missions over Syria and continue Operation Shader in Iraq, where Britain is providing support to Iraqi forces at the government’s request.
Speaking to the Cyprus press at Akrotiri, Fallon said that last night the RAF Typhoon aircrafts were in action and successfully striking oil wellheads in eastern Syria.
Meanwhile, the United States and its allies targeted IS with 12 strikes in Iraq and 11 in Syria on Friday, the U.S. military said.
“They are treating this very, very seriously indeed” he said, adding “however it is not clear how imminent this threat is”. “And it derives from Syria”, he said. We face a new kind of enemy that makes no demands, takes no hostages, doesn’t want to negotiate.
In the footage, a fighter wielding an AK-47 and wearing an explosives belt praises the Paris attackers, who murdered 130 people, as “martyrdom-seeking lions who stormed the capital of France”, “The Sunday Times” reported today.
One of the gunmen is said to have travelled to Britain this year and visited Birmingham and London.
But Mr Fallon insisted the strikes would help destroy IS and that the “full force of the RAF” was now being used to “deal with this death cult”.
The unnamed terrorist was said to have met people “suspected of having the intention and capability of plotting or assisting terrorist activity” in the UK.
West Midlands Police assistant chief constable Marcus Beale confirmed the force was assisting in the investigation into the Paris attacks.
We have to deal with terrorism and it is only through the cooperation of the Cyprus government that we are able here to step up our fight against terrorism, which is in the interest of everybody, British Minister of Defense Michael Fallon has said.
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The men were thought to be carrying bogus IDs with the names of Samir Bouzid and Soufiane Kayal.
