RAF runs Russian gauntlet in Syria
RAF jets risked clashing with Russian warplanes during an air raid on Islamic State in western Syria, it emerged yesterday.
Two Tornados destroyed an Islamic State tank in the ancient city of Palmyra at the same time as Russian bombers were blitzing the terror group nearby.
But the US-led coalition used a hotline to the Russian command centre to give them advance information.
The practice, known as “deconfliction”, was used by the Americans on Tuesday to persuade the Russians to stop bombing IS positions just captured by US-backed Syrian rebels.
The RAF raid is part of a sustained air assault on IS, also known as Daesh, in Syria and Iraq stretching back more than two years.
The Tornados flew on Monday from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus to attack and destroy an IS mortar team in west Mosul, which is under siege from Iraqi forces.
An RAF spokesman said: “The Tornado flight then headed west into Syria, where a main battle tank operated by Daesh had been identified at Tadmur, in the ancient city of Palmyra. A Brimstone missile scored a solid hit on the target.”
On Thursday Syrian regime forces declared that they had retaken Palmyra from IS for the second time in a year after an offensive backed by Russian air strikes.
And yesterday the Russian Defence Ministry said its military advisers had planned and overseen the Syrian army’s recapture of the city of Palmyra and that Russian warplanes and special forces had played a decisive role.
It told a news briefing in Moscow that more than 1,000 Islamic State fighters had been killed or wounded in the Palmyra operation.