Announcing details of Friday night’s air strikes, the Ministry of Defence said the RAF had targeted a “very large Daesh-controlled oilfield at Omar in eastern Syria”.
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“A terrorist sniper team opened fire from a compound on Iraqi troops, but was silenced by a direct hit from a Paveway IV guided bomb”, a statement said.
A truck bomb identified south of Sinjar, which was recently liberated from IS by Peshmerga forces, was destroyed by a direct hit by a Hellfire missile fired from a Reaper drone.
Eight attacks were carried out in the latest mission and first reports suggest they were successful, the MoD said.
To date, the USA has conducted almost all of the air strikes in Syria and Iraq, with France, Australia and Denmark also taking part.
Oil fields are being targeted as they represent a significant source of revenue for IS, also known as Isis and Daesh.
MPs voted by 397 to 223, a majority of 174, after the marathon ten hour debate in the Commons on Wednesday in favour of extending British action against IS into its Syrian strongholds.
A military source said: “We are going after the head of the snake but it’s also about going after its wallet”.
“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”.
The RAF has been carrying out operations against IS in Iraq since previous year.
Speaking to around 200 crew in an aircraft hangar at the Cyprus base, Mr Fallon said: “This is a very real threat to us in Britain”.
“We face a new kind of enemy that makes no demands, takes no hostages, doesn’t want to negotiate”, Defence secretary Michael Fallon said during a visit to an RAF base in Cyprus, according to the BBC.
He told USA broadcaster CNN he had spoken to an unnamed “senior European counter-terrorism official” who received intelligence that Isis was “aiming to hit the United Kingdom next”.
US President Barack Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron discussed future steps to combat the Islamic State (IS, ISIL or Daesh) following the British decision to join the US-led global coalition airstrikes, the White House said in a release after the phone conversation between the two leaders.
Secretary of State for Defence Michael Fallon speaks to pilots and ground crew at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, as RAF jets at the base continue bombing runs over Syria..
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But the Free Syrian Army opposition group has claimed British intervention is “just a few more jets” over the course of a long campaign.
