Uk’s role in terror

The downing of a Russian aircraft by so-called Syrian rebels in Syria marks a new stage in the conflict.

Back in November of 2016 the Al-qaeda-linked Ansar al-islam Front boasted that it had been given portable surface-to-air missiles capable of bringing down aircraft. These so-called “Manpads” were exhibited in a video which showed they were the SA-7 Strela-2 missiles.

The US had a Plan B after the breakdown of a brief Us-russian-brokered cessation of hostilities amid renewed fighting around the northern Syrian city of Aleppo in 2016. This involved giving the green light to Saudi Arabia and Qatar to funnel the portable anti-aircraft missiles to the Syrian Islamists. It was revealed in Hillary Clinton’s leaked email cache that the US government knew Saudi Arabia and Qatar were arming Isis.

The US supplied Stinger missiles to the Mujahadeen against the Russians in Afghanistan in the 1980s. These ruthless killers became Al-qaeda. In the 90s the US and Saudis backed Islamist insurgencies in the Caucasus to destabilise Russia. This is a tactic first used by Lord Palmerston in the 19th century.

Mark Curtis, in his “Secret Affairs: Britain’s collusion with radical Islam”, has investigated how Britain worked with state sponsors of terrorism as well as radical Islamic groups in the post-world War II period in the energy-rich Middle East and Central Asia.

Britain’s collusion with Islamist fundamentalist forces prepared to use atrocities to achieve their objectives is in sharp contrast to the official line that Britain is conducting a “war on terror”.

The scenario where a Usbacked, Us-supplied jihadist group in Syria uses US weapons to shoot down a Russian plane and then murders the pilot on the ground should be seen as a near-nightmare escalation, drawing the US and Russia terrifyingly closer to direct conflict.

ALAN HINNRICHS Gillespie Terrace, Dundee