Cameron
to order RAF airstrikes against ISIS leadership in Syria – media
RT,
29
November, 2015
UK
Prime Minister David Cameron will order Britain's Royal Air Force to
"decapitate" Islamic State leaders in Syria providing other
MPs back his decision to extend the country’s anti-terror bombing
campaign, according to a media report.
Military
commanders have been instructed by the PM to use precision strikes to
target Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) top militants, in
particular a Syrian preacher Sheikh Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, who is
the head of the terrorist group's "international
attacks"
unit, The Sunday Times reported.
The
IS chief will top the UK's "kill
list,"
as his unit is believed to have masterminded the Paris attacks and is
now targeting Britain, the publication said, adding that UK's
military aerial campaign – should it be expanded to Syria – will
also target "other
ISIS command hideouts in Raqqa, the group's self-proclaimed capital,
in a bid to destroy what Cameron calls the 'snake's head' of the
terror organisation."
Speaking
at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Malta,
David Cameron called on other politicians to support the decision in
the upcoming vote, saying that "when
the choice comes, people will indicate that this is the right thing
for Britain to do. It is, and we should do it."
"It
has been working in Iraq, where we have shrunk the territory of ISIL,
and it will work too in Syria,"
the PM added, saying that his country "can't
wait for [a] political solution"
and members of government "have
to start acting now"
in order to keep British people and "others
in Europe safe."
Ahead
of the vote on expanding the UK’s air operation against IS, British
Defence Secretary Michael Fallon also called for preventive
airstrikes on terrorists in Syria, saying that terror attacks similar
to those in Paris and Brussels could "easily
happen"
in London.
RT UK
Former UN official signs #DontBombSyria letter to Cameron http://on.rt.com/6xrd
In
an exclusive interview with the Telegraph, Britain’s Defence
Secretary said: “The
threat to the UK is extremely high. An attack is highly likely so we
have to respond.”
“What
happened in Paris and Brussels could easily happen in London,” Fallon
said, adding that it could as well be Manchester or Glasgow.
The
defence secretary urged against pulling punches against IS
terrorists. “These
aren't people you can negotiate with. You can only deal with them by
force,” he
said.
The
Royal Air Force (RAF) is already “making
a difference in Iraq,” Fallon
said, adding “we
need to hit ISIL harder and deal with this death cult once and for
all.”e
Prime
Minister David Cameron has been planning to bomb Syria for months
now, but it is Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who might steal the PM’s
thunder.
Corbyn
has been opposing the Tory’s initiative to refocus Britain’s
effort in the US-led anti-Islamic State coalition from Iraq to Syria,
hoping to convince Labour MPs to oppose the Cameron government’s
military adventure in a vote in the Commons next week. However, many
Labour members appear to be ready to side with the government.
“I
hope all MPs will weigh up the arguments. They need to keep us safe
here in Britain, to respond to the United Nations resolution and to
France's call for help,” Fallon
said in an interview.
Earlier
this week, French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called on
London to expand its air attacks against Islamic State into Syria. As
of now, British warplanes are striking IS in Iraq within the
framework of the US-led coalition against the terrorists
“We
need British defence capabilities to win this war. The Royal Air
Force is already in action over Iraq. Its involvement over Syria
would make a practical difference,” the
French minister wrote in an article published in the Guardian
“It
is France’s hope that British forces will soon be working side by
side with their French counterparts to take this fight to the very
heart of ISIS,” to “degrade
and, ultimately, to destroy it,” the
minister said
The
RAF is, in fact, already present in Syrian airspace, in the form of
Britain’s MQ-9 Reaper drone. It was used to provide surveillance
for a wave of French airstrikes on Raqqa in Syria, Islamic State’s
stronghold, in the wake of the Paris attacks, the UK Ministry of
Defence says.
In
Iraq, 305 Islamic State militants have been killed in UK drone
strikes over the last 12 months, according to the Defence Ministry.
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