U.S. President Barack Obama welcomed the British move and said the coalition would work “to integrate them into our coalition air tasking orders as quickly as possible”.
Advertisement
British Royal Air Force Tornado fighter jets conducted airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria, the country’s defense ministry said Thursday.
The first Typhoon jet fighters left RAF Lossiemouth in Moray, Scotland, for Cyprus to join the airstrikes, an hour after the Commons vote.
The strikes come just hours after UK Prime Minister David Cameron successfully passed a motion authorising strikes in Syria, with 397 MPs voting in favour, and 223 voting against.
Describing IS militants as “women-raping, Muslim-murdering, mediaeval monsters”, Cameron said he wants to “pursue a comprehensive strategy that also includes political, diplomatic and humanitarian action”.
The Defence Secretary indicated that military action against IS – also known as Isil, Isis and Daesh – can be expected to continue for years, rather than months, telling BBC1’s Breakfast: “This is not going to be quick”.
Opposition Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, looks at papers sitting centre right opposite Cameron, who opposes any expansion of Britain’s military role.
But Mr Fallon rejected the senator’s argument, stressing France’s “surprise” when it joined the US-led air strikes in Syria in September that there were still so many IS sites which had not been destroyed.
“These terrorists are plotting to kill us and to radicalise our children right now. They have been able to attack these terrorists from one side of the border, now they’ve been able to attack some of their key targets on the other side of the border as well”, Mr. Fallon said. News of the vote result was met by howls of disgust.
The operation followed a tumultuous day at Westminster which saw MPs vote decisively to extend air strikes against IS – which had been confined to Iraq – into Syria.
According to a poll Yesterday shortly before ministers made their case to parliament for a new mission, German support for military involvement in the campaign against Islamic State has risen sharply with 42 percent backing action. Germany’s government said it planned to send up to six Tornado reconnaissance planes, tanker aircraft and a frigate to help protect the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle in the eastern Mediterranean, but won’t actively engage in combat.
Captain Richard Davies, from RAF Marham, said: “In more than 400 air strikes the RAF has carried out in Iraq, we have had absolutely no civilian casualties reported”.
Advertisement
“I can confirm that British tornadoes were in action attacking oil fields in eastern Syria…And were successful”, he said. “We will send them to the next world on a one-way ticket”.
