Royal Air Force (RAF) jets have attacked two Islamic State (IS) targets in Iraq, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has confirmed.
Two RAF Tornado GR4s assisted Kurdish forces in north-west Iraq and attacked an IS heavy weapons position with a Paveway VI guided bomb and an IS armed pick-up truck with a Brimstone missile. The MoD said that “an initial assessment indicates that both precision strikes were successful”.
Commenting on the air strikes, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said:
“Halting the advance of ISIL and helping the Iraqi government turn it back, and helping the Iraqi army and Kurdish forces to do that, is a huge task and is going to be a long campaign.
“But the RAF have been flying day and night since Parliament gave that authority last Friday and they have been flying important missions, gathering intelligence, deterrents against ISIL terrorism, driving them back from the villages, as well as being there in close support when they are tasked to go down and help, in particular fighting, and that’s now what they’ve done today.”
Meanwhile, Home Secretary Theresa May announced her plans to address the threat of extremism in the UK with “banning orders” and “extreme disruption orders” that target individuals who “stay just within the law but spread poisonous hatred”.
