As the Prime Minister and the Defence Secretary have said, there must be a wide-ranging response to deal with ISIL at its source in Syria, Iraq, and Libya. Having received a request for assistance from the Iraqi Government, British aircraft are delivering the second highest number of airstrikes over Iraq. Our surveillance aircraft are already assisting other countries with their operations over Syria and British forces are helping to train the moderate Syrian opposition.
In addition, the Government is taking the strongest possible action against people seeking to travel to engage in terrorist activity in Syria or Iraq; so far 23 passports have been withdrawn from people planning to travel to Iraq and Syria and 69 people have been arrested for terror offences on their return to the UK. The RAF is carrying out airstrikes against ISIL targets in support of Iraqi forces on the ground, which is helping to push ISIL out of parts of Iraq, and are supplying machine guns, body armour and other equipment as well as providing training to counter Improvised Explosive Devices. Britain is also a leading contributor to the humanitarian relief effort in Iraq: in total we are providing £59.5 million of humanitarian aid to help those in Iraq who have been forced to flee from ISIL
During the debate on participating in the coalition against ISIL last September the Prime Minister said he “believed that there is a strong case for us to do more in Syria”. I agree with him. It would be better if there was consensus supporting such action in the House, but I appreciate that more time and consideration is needed before returning to Parliament to seek such approval.
While we are not conducting air strikes in Syria, our armed forces regularly have embeds in the forces of our close partners. Embedded UK personnel operate as if they were the host nation’s personnel, under that nation’s chain of command, but they remain subject to UK domestic, international and host nation law. Over the last year, five pilots have been embedded at one time or another with forces conducting strikes over Syria; however the Defence Secretary has confirmed they have been involved in United States or Canadian military action, and not as part of a British military operation.
By Patrick McLoughlin on October 05, 2015