Drone piloted from RAF base in UK blasts jihadis in Iraq
A BRITISH drone blew up Islamic State fanatics as they tried to plant roadside bombs, it was announced yesterday.
It is the first strike by a British Reaper drone against IS in Iraq.
The heavily-armed Reaper appears to have killed a group of jihadists involved in a battle near Iraq’s largest oil refinery north of Baghdad.
A number of the remotely piloted aircraft – armed with Hellfire missiles – have been deployed to spy on the brutal IS terrorists who have swept across large swathes of Iraq and Syria.
They had been conducting surveillance for the past couple of weeks but at the weekend one of them struck.
The attack will help the Iraqi army which is fighting to regain control of the area around the city of Baiji and the nearby refinery.
It follows the announcement that Britain was stepping up its military presence in Iraq by committing more troops to train Iraqi fighters.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: ‘This weekend saw the first air strike by a Royal Air Force Reaper… as British forces continue to assist the Iraqi government in their fight against Isil (IS).
‘The Reaper… successfully attacked the terrorists using a Hellfire missile.’ Once the drones are launched from an airbase in Kuwait, they are controlled from RAF Waddington, in Lincolnshire.
The MoD said RAF Tornado jets were also involved in airstrikes near Baiji over the weekend. The town was seized by militants in June but they failed to capture the refinery and on Sunday, officials said government forces had regained large areas of the town.
An undisclosed number of Reaper drones were moved to Iraq last month after they finished watching over the final days of the British campaign in Afghanistan. That number is expected to be ‘ramped up’ in the coming weeks, according to Defence sources. They joined RAF Tornado GR4 fighter-bombers and US jets and drones already flying over IS territory. It is understood drones are also flying surveillance missions over Syria. Yester- day MoD also released details of ten strikes by warplanes since October 5. Footage from a strike on November 3 shows an RAF Tornado destroying a jihadist vehicle.
At the same time, US Central Command said there had been 23 airstrikes in Syria and 18 in Iraq by US-led coalition forces since Friday last week.
On Sunday morning, Two Tornados used a Brimstone missile to destroy a shipping container near Al Anbar, west of Baghdad.
The MoD said the container was being ‘used by the terrorists to store equipment to support extortion and control of the local population’.
Other RAF aircraft, including tankers, transport and surveillance platforms continue to support coalition operations.