War against Isil ‘by no means over’, warns Williamson

THE Defence Secretary says the fight against Isil is “by no means over” as the Royal Air Force reveals it has had its busiest month over Syria and Iraq since February.

British air strikes from RAF Tornado jets and Reaper drones destroyed a significant number of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant “command posts, tunnel networks and weapons caches” in September, hitting targets at a rate of more than one per day, the Ministry of Defence said last night.

Gavin Williamson, using an Arabic name for Isil, said: “The fight against Daesh is by no means over and we must continue to stand up for our people and our partners, to ensure their abhorrent and poisonous ideology does not spread to our streets.” He said strikes against militants would continue “as long as they pose a clear and immediate threat to our national and international security”.

Isil has lost large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria since the start of the year, and from about 50,000 fighters in 2014 the insurgents are thought to number around 2,000.

But the group is still launching brutal attacks on civilians including beheadings, burning people alive and dragging victims behind motorbikes.

RAF strikes have continued against militants in Iraq and Syria in recent weeks, including a strike by Tornado jets against an Isil command post and a Reaper drone strike in support of Syrian Democratic Forces fighters battling insurgents near Abu Kamal in Syria.