British Prime Minister David Cameron urges parliament to approve British air strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria.
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Anti-war protesters who had been demonstrating outside Westminster booed after hearing the outcome of the vote.
Cameron said he didn’t want to risk ISIS being given a propaganda win if British politicians voted against military intervention in Syria.
The decision to extend bombing to Syria divided the opposition Labour Party, opposed by its leader Jeremy Corbyn but supported by its foreign affairs spokesman Hilary Benn in a passionate speech in parliament.
The official remained anonymous because the ministry had not officially acknowledged the air strikes against ISIS in Syria.
“The decision tonight is this”, Hammond said: “Do we bring the fight to them, or do we wait for them to bring the fight to us?”
Sources told Sky two RAF Tornado jets have taken off from Cyprus for the “operating area”.
“Without a comprehensive strategy air strikes will simply reinforce the West’s long-term failure in the region, generally, at a time when there are already too many aircraft chasing too few targets”.
The BBC estimates that ultimately 67 Labour MPs, including several members of the shadow cabinet, voted with the government to back air strikes although Labour MP Emily Thornberry told the channel that her estimated figure was 57.
“These women-raping, Muslim-murdering, medieval monsters – they are hijacking the peaceful religion of Islam for their warped ends”.
Cameron said the Joint Intelligence Committee and MI5 both assessed the United Kingdom was among IS’s “top tier” targets, while the Paris atrocities revealed the extent to which attacks in Europe were now being planned by “the head of the snake” in the group’s headquarters in Raqqa, Syria.
There is no evidence that air strike campaigns alone will work – critics say that without ground troops and reconstructive efforts, the air strike campaign could just create a vacuum for other militia groups, such as the Al-Qaeda-backed Nusra Front or forces loyal to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. But dozens of its members support the move and will not vote en bloc as a party against it. Approval is expected to pass. It had inspired the worst terrorist attack against British people since 7/7 on the beaches of Tunisia and plotted atrocities on the streets of Britain, he said.
Cameron argued that there are 70,000 non-extremist fighters in Syria, ready to take on Daesh, but he admitted that many of them are not the ideal partners.
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“In full coordination with the government of Iraq, we’re deploying a specialized expeditionary targeting force to assist Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces and to put even more pressure on ISIL”, Carter said before the House Armed Services Committee.
