Tornados step up bomb blitz on the oil fields

BRITISH warplanes blitzed the heartland of Islamic State in Syria using seven 500lb bombs to attack the country’s largest oil field.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said the raids on infrastructure were a ‘very real blow’ to the militants because they struck at the oil revenues which fund their terror campaign.

Now that the jets have the green light to operate over Syria, the RAF’s task was to ‘remorselessly squeeze the terrorists’ and the first strikes had kick- started those efforts, Mr Fallon said.

The jets were joined yesterday by eight more aircraft and 150 military personnel from two bases in the UK – doubling the number of jets in Cyprus.

Michael Fallon said of the aircraft: ‘We are doubling our strike force. Together with extension of our operations to Syria, that will mean we hit these brutal terrorists harder in their heartland.’

Another two Tornados took off last night to continue the bombing onslaught against militant positions, though RAF personnel on the base could not disclose whether they would hit targets in Syria or Iraq.

Fifty-seven minutes after the yes vote on Wednesday night, two Tornado GR4 fighter aircraft flew from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus straight to Syria.

An hour later they were followed by two more jets – each equipped with three 500lb Paveway IV bombs. They too travelled 35 miles inside Syria’s eastern border with Iraq. They did not carry the precision-guided Brimstone missile, typically used against moving targets. The Paveway bombs are designed to take out larger enemy positions and are much cheaper than the Brimstones.

They were accompanied by a Voyager air refuelling tanker and a Reaper drone, operated from RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, which helped provide intelligence.

Mr Fallon authorised the Tornados to hit a ‘pre-planned’ target, which was identified as the Al-Omar oil fields, near the city of Deir Ezzor, in eastern Syria. They launched seven of the £22,000 laser-guided bombs on six targets across the oil field, which was captured by Islamic State in July last year.

Mr Fallon told BBC’s Breakfast: ‘I can confirm that four British Tornados were in action after the vote last night attacking oil fields in eastern Syria – the Al-Omar oil fields – from which the Daesh [IS] terrorists receive a huge part of their revenue.

‘This strikes a very real blow at the oil and the revenue on which the Daesh terrorists depend. We need to remorselessly squeeze these terrorists, and we made a start on that last night.’ He said the raid was ‘a very good illustration of a target that is literally one side of the border and couldn’t previously be attacked’.

An MoD spokesman said: ‘Carefully selected elements of the oilfield infrastructure were targeted, ensuring the strikes will have a significant impact on Daesh’s ability to extract the oil to fund their terrorism.’

He warned that David Cameron had been clear it was ‘going to be a long campaign’, adding: ‘This is not going to be quick.’

‘There is plenty of work to be done in attacking these deliberate targets and helping to cut off the flow of arms and oil to the terrorists.’

Mr Fallon said the RAF had been involved in both deliberate targeting of particular buildings, supply routes and depots, as well as operating in close air support of ground forces.

Asked whether Britain was safer after a yes vote this morning, he said: ‘Yes. We were already involved in the fight against terrorism in Iraq and it made no sense to be able to attack targets one side of an artificial border that the terrorists themselves don’t respect and not attack the other side.

‘We are sadly already a target but what we have been able to do as a result of last night’s vote is we have been able to respond to the call from France to come to its aid, to the call from the United Nations to do more to suppress this terrorism, eradicate the safe haven the terrorists have and that was part of the air strikes last night.’

The attacks on the oil fields are an attempt to squeeze the fanatics’ income. Oil is generating more than £1million in daily revenue for the group.