Britain has carried out its first airstrikes in Syria, hours after MPs voted overwhelmingly to authorize military action in Syria against ISIL.
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“Last night we saw the Typhoons in action for the first time, successfully hitting an oil field, oil well heads in eastern Syria out in the Omar field”, Fallon told Sky News.
Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said: “There are two types of action the Royal Air Force has been involved in in Iraq: tackling deliberate targets – particular buildings, installations, supply routes, depots and so on, and secondly in close air support of the ground forces”. “Asked later if he meant Western ground forces, Mr Kerry said: “(I’m) talking about Syrian and Arab, as we have been consistently”.
Two RAF Tornado GR4s took off from RAF Akrotiri and flew an armed reconnaissance patrol over eastern Syria.
CBS News senior national security correspondent David Martin has reported that while there is no hard and fast rule governing permissible civilian casualties in US airstrikes and each strike is evaluated individually, he is not aware of any case when a bombing was authorized with knowledge that more than five innocent people were present.
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.
“The question is this: do we work with our allies to degrade and destroy this threat… or do we sit back and wait for them to attack us?” he told the House of Commons.
He made no assurances about the length of the campaign, telling them only it was “not going to be short or simple”.
But it is a blow to the leader of Britain’s main opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, who was against launching the air strikes. “But I want you to know also you go with the backing of the Government and the people of Britain, and you go also with all out good wishes”.
The Ministry of Defence said the Tornados and Typhoons used Paveway IV guided bombs to hit wellheads in the oil field on Friday night, “thus cutting off the terrorists’ oil revenue at the very source”. France – which began bombing IS targets in Syria in September – said it showed Europeans will stand together after the terror attacks that left 130 dead in Paris last month.
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Two Tornado fighter bombers joined an existing eight earlier this week and six Typhoon fighters were also flown to the base, the statement said.
