Share

Fallon says RAF to target IS ledership

Britain’s Defence Secretary Michael Fallon stands next to an Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet as he speaks to Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots and ground crew members at the RAF Akrotiri airbase, Cyprus.

Advertisement

On Thursday, four Tornado jets launched the first air strikes, hitting the Omar oil fields in eastern Syria.

British bombers made their second round of strikes on IS targets in Syria late on Friday, again hitting oil fields, the Ministry of Defence said on Saturday.

Britain launched airstrikes against IS targets in Syria just hours after its Parliament approved a government proposal to extend military action from Iraq to Syria.

Previously British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon briefed Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades on Saturday morning, at the Presidential Palace, about the ongoing British operations to combat terrorism. He told Sky News: “Last night we had the Tornados in action, the Typhoons in action and our unmanned Reapers in action – all of them striking [IS] where it hurts”.

It was the first time Typhoon jets flew missions over Syria.

It is because of who we’re in the West as well as Britain that we’ve this death cult that is special.

One was to Iraq in case of a no, the other was to Syria. “They don’t want to negotiate and they don’t ask for anything”, Fallon stressed. The jets used GPS- and laser-guided Paveway IV bombs to hit the wellheads, in an attempt to cut IS’s oil supply and its revenue from oil sales.

The mission came as Prime Minister David Cameron insisted British war planes can help to bring about a political settlement in the civil war-torn country.

Advertisement

The U.S.-led coalition carried out 26 airstrikes against ISIS militants on Thursday, targeting oil production in Syria and supporting the Iraqi effort to retake the city of Ramadi, the military said in a statement on Friday. Eight more British jets arrived at RAF Akrotiri to join the attacks.

Obama, Cameron discuss efforts against IS