UK Conducts First Airstrikes in Iraq
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Spiderninja/iStockphoto/Thinkstock(LONDON) — The United Kingdom announced that it had conducted its first airstrikes against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria targets in Iraq on Tuesday.
According to a release from the U.K. government, the two fighter jets were tasked with providing assistance to Kurdish troops under attack by ISIS terrorists. The release says that a guided bomb was used to attack an ISIS ground position and a Brimstone missile was used against an armed pickup truck believed to be operated by ISIS militants.
U.K. Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said that the Royal Air Force “have been flying day and night since Parliament gave that authority last Friday…gathering intelligence, deterrents against [ISIS] terrorism, driving them back from the villages, as well as being there in close support when they are tasked to go down and help.”
U.S. and coalition forces have conducted over 220 airstrikes in Iraq and at least 66 in Syria.
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