U.K. Joins Airstrikes in Syria Against ISIS Move comes hours after British lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favor of expanding the country’s bombing campaign By Robert Wall
http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-k-joins-airstrikes-in-syria-against-isis-1449131829
LONDON—The U.K. has begun airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria, only hours after lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favor of extending Britain’s bombing campaign into the war-torn country.
“Four British Tornados were in action after the vote last night attacking oil fields in Eastern Syria,” British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon told the BBC. All four jets have arrived back at their base in Cyprus, with an assessment of the strikes now ongoing.
“Our initial analysis of the operation indicates that the strikes were successful,” the British Defense Ministry said in a statement hours after the raid.
U.K. lawmakers voted 397 to 223 in favor of a government motion to extend airstrikes to Syria from Iraq, where the U.K. military has been conducting bombing campaigns for more than a year.
“The vote last night freed the [Royal Air Force] up. They have been able to attack these terrorists from one side of the border, now they’ve been able to attack some of their key targets on the other side of the border as well,” Mr. Fallon said.
Prime Minister David Cameron drew support from a significant number of politicians from the main opposition Labour Party, despite its leader’s stance against intervention.
The British military was already flying intelligence-gathering missions over Syria. In September, the U.K. also conducted a drone strike against Islamic State fighters, killing two British nationals, without parliamentary approval, which Mr. Cameron defended as an act of self-defense.
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The U.K. will double the number of combat jets deployed to attack targets in Iraq and Syria, Mr. Fallon said. The country will deploy two more Tornado jets and six Eurofighter Typhoon combat jets to Cyprus.
Last night’s strikes took place 35 miles inside Syria’s eastern border with Iraq, the Defense Ministry said.
The Tornado jets flew alongside allied planes and were refueled inflight by a RAF Voyager airborne tanker plane. A Reaper drone was also involved. The strike package attacked six targets with laser-guided Paveway IV bombs, the ministry said.
The U.S., France and Russiain recent days have stepped up strikes against Islamic State oil facilities to cut off one of the group’s main sources of revenue.
“The Omar oil field is one of the largest and most important to Daesh’s financial operations, and represents over 10% of their potential income from oil,” the Defense Ministry said. Daesh is another term for Islamic State.
The ministry said “carefully selected elements of the oil field infrastructure were targeted, ensuring the strikes will have a significant impact on Daesh’s ability to extract the oil to fund their terrorism.”
Mr. Fallon said he approved the targets.
French President François Hollande on Thursday said he welcomed the U.K. air force strikes in Syria. “It’s another response to the call for European solidarity,” Mr. Hollande’s office said.
Mr. Fallon said cutting off the revenue source was crucial in ensuring that Islamic State couldn’t finance terrorist attacks overseas.
“We need to squeeze the terrorists,” he said, adding the strikes overnight contributed to that effort.
The ministry said aircrew used advanced sensors to assure there were no civilians near the target.
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