“The president has authorized U.S. Central Command to work with partner nations to conduct targeted air strikes of Iraq and Syria as part of the comprehensive strategy to degrade and defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL”, the special report stated.
Advertisement
A report by the House of Commons Defence Committee published on Wednesday says that there have been only 65 United Kingdom air raids in Syria during this period, compared to 550 in Iraq. It warned that the Islamist group, like al-Qaeda before it, could transform into an worldwide movement if squeezed out of Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq.
According to the committee, the Coalition’s current strategy to counter ISIS is not sufficient as it primarily focuses on Iraq and Syria and relies on the removal of territory from the terrorist group.
The U.K. government’s case for extending its air campaign against Islamic State to Syria from Iraq late a year ago was based on a strategy of supporting what then-Prime Minister David Cameron said were 70,000 moderate opposition forces.
Lawmakers warned that while substantial progress was being made in Iraq, the situation in Syria is “much less certain”.
Elsewhere in the report, the committee criticizes the British government for failing to disclose data about its campaign of airstrikes in Syria.
And the MPs said that, despite differences with Russian Federation, military co-operation with Moscow, which supports the Assad regime, “may be the only way in which Daesh can finally be suppressed or defeated in Syria”.
It said that a lack of data from the MoD on United Kingdom air strikes over Syria – of which only 65 have been carried out since the anti-IS operation in Iraq was expanded last December – makes it hard to check if the strikes are supporting “credible moderate ground forces”, a key justification for the campaign.
“The goals in Iraq are to remove territory from Daesh, to strengthen the Iraqi Government and to maintain Iraq as a unitary state”.
The report has said the disparity between military effort and that on stabilization was “concerning” and urged the British government to set out exactly “how it intends to help ensure that political reform is achieved and what action it is planning to take to keep it in step with the military campaign”.
The report warns that even if the UK’s current military-based strategy in Iraq and Syria succeeds in crushing IS, it could be replaced by “other groups posing similar or even greater threats”.
Advertisement
In Iraq, enemy forces constitute 55 per cent of the targets, whereas in Syria they were 35 per cent up to the end of May, since when they have risen to 40 per cent, mostly around Manbij in northern Aleppo province where the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces captured the city after a long siege.
