Britain’s strikes in Syria will help ‘degrade’ Islamic State, says Cameron

CYPRUS/LONDON: British bombers made their first strikes on Islamic State (IS) in Syria yesterday, hitting oil fields Prime Minister David Cameron says are being used to fund attacks on the West.

Tornado bombers took off from the RAF Akrotiri air base in Cyprus just hours after British lawmakers voted 397 to 223 to support Cameron’s plan for air strikes, a witness said. They returned to base safely several hours later.

The four bombers attacked six targets in the Omar oil fields in eastern Syria controlled by the Islamist militant group which British officials call Daesh.

“That strikes a very real blow at the oil and the revenue on which the Daesh terrorists depend,” Defence Secretary Michael Fallon told the BBC.

“There are plenty more of these targets throughout eastern, northern Syria which we hope to be striking in the next few days and weeks,” Fallon said. He said Britain was sending eight more warplanes to Cyprus to join the missions.

There was no immediate information about casualties.

The British contribution still forms only a tiny part of US-led “Operation Inherent Resolve”, which has been bombing IS targets in Iraq and Syria for more than a year with hundreds of aircraft.

Although the British vote adds little additional military capability to the coalition, it has had outsized political and diplomatic significance since last month’s attacks in Paris, as Europe’s other leading military power wrestled with a decision to join France in expanding its military action.

Russia is also bombing Syria outside the US-led coalition. Moscow supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while the US and its allies oppose him.

Cameron said the strikes would “degrade” IS, a militant Islamist group which has declared a caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria.

“It is in Syria where they pump and sell the oil that does so much to help finance its evil acts,” Cameron said ahead of the vote.

The news was met by howls of disgust by dozens of antiwar protesters demonstrating outside parliament.

But the attacks on Paris that killed 130 people and were claimed by IS have stiffened the resolve of many lawmakers. – Reuters