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RAF fighter jets target oilfield on second combat mission

British jets also hit seven targets in eastern Syrian oil fields in a mission described as landing a “very real blow” by Defence Secretary Michael Fallon.

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“We are going to use force against them in the headquarters, their command and control, their logistics, but also in the infrastructure that supports them”, he told the Press Association.

It is understood the targets were oil fields again, and the mission involved two Tornados and, for the first time, two Typhoons.

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.

Mr Fallon said: “They (the military) have the support of Parliament, Parliament represents the public”.

Mr Fallon said the Tornadoes had been conducting sorties over Iraq on a nightly basis and were authorised to strike targets in Syria once the result of the Commons vote was known.

He made no assurances about the length of the campaign, telling them only it was “not going to be short or simple”. We are people who choose our government, accept a rule of law, tolerate other religions. It’s because of who we are in Britain and the West that we have this particular death cult.

Fallon was speaking during a visit to the British airbase in Cyprus.

Since coalition air operations began previous year, the RAF base at Akrotiri has been home to extensive air capabilities, including Tornado GR4s, Voyager air-to-air refueling aircraft, C130 transport aircraft, and Sentinel surveillance aircraft, according to the MoD statement.

President Anastasiades also had the opportunity to brief the British official on current developments in the efforts to find a solution to the Cyprus problem, the written statement concludes.

MPs voted in favour of extending air strikes against Islamic State into Syria on Wednesday night, with the first bombing campaign taking place just hours later.

Credit: Danny Lawson/PA Wire Ground crew work on a RAF Tornado GR4 after it returned to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, as jets carried out the first British bombing runs over Syria.

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He added: “But there is now a political process alongside the military operation which will lead to, we hope, a new settlement in Syria, a new type of government that will eventually be able to put its own forces into the fight against ISIL Daesh as the civil war ends”.

A British Royal Air Force Typhoon leaves for a mission from RAF Akrotiri in southern Cyprus