(MENAFN- Arab Times) Britain has for the first time conducted an airstrike in Syria, killing two of its own nationals suspected of fighting for Islamic State (IS), Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday, despite not having a parliamentary mandate to take military action in the country. Britain conducts regular attacks in neighbouring Iraq and flies drones over Syria to gather intelligence on the hardline IS group. But unlike some other coalition partners it does not target IS positions in Syria.
Cameron told parliament on Monday that, as an act of self defence, one Briton had been targeted and killed in a precision airstrike carried out by an RAF remotely piloted aircraft in August. Two others travelling with the man - including another Briton - were also killed. "There was a terrorist directing murder on our streets and no other means to stop him," Cameron said. "We took this action because there was no alternative." Reyaad Khan, the Briton targeted in the airstrike, had his assets frozen by Britain's finance ministry last year after reports that he been involved in terrorism-related activities in Syria. "There was clear evidence of the individuals in question planning and directing armed attacks against the UK," Cameron said. "These were part of a series of actual and foiled attempts to attack the UK and our allies." Cameron said the airstrike was "entirely lawful" and the first time in modern history that Britain has used a military asset to conduct such action in a country it is not at war with.
Meanwhile, France will launch surveillance flights over Syria from Tuesday with a view to conducting airstrikes on Islamic State positions, President Francois Hollande said on Monday. "I have asked the defence ministry that from tomorrow surveillance flights can be launched over Syria, allowing us to plan airstrikes against Daesh (the Islamic State group)," Hollande told a press conference in Paris. "What we want is to know what is being prepared against us and what is being done against the Syrian population," he added. He also confirmed that France would not send ground troops into the country, saying it would be "inconsequential and unrealistic." He said it was unrealistic "because we would be the only ones" and also risked being "transformed into an occupation force". "So we won't do it," he said. "It's for regional forces to take their responsibilities. France, however, will work to find political solutions."
He said that finding a political transition that sidelined Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was "essential". "The transition is an essential point. Nothing must be done that can consolidate or maintain Bashar al-Assad," he said.
Hollande's comments come at a time of growing concern in the West over reports that Russia is toughening its military stance in Syria. Moscow has been a bulwark of military and diplomatic support to the Assad regime, and is promoting an expanded coalition against IS that includes countries in the region as well as the regular Syrian army. The United States government expressed concern on Saturday over reports of "an imminent enhanced Russian buildup" in Syria.
Secretary of State John Kerry "made clear that if such reports were accurate, these actions could further escalate the conflict, lead to greater loss of innocent life, increase refugee flows and risk confrontation with the anti-ISIL coalition operating in Syria," the State Department said in a statement. Concerns of being sidelined by Russia have combined with the growing surge of interest in the fate of refugees from the war, pushing France to take a more active role in Syria. Speaking to AFP on Saturday, a French official said any French strikes would not involve joining the US-led coalition. "Our line hasn't changed, and there's no question of joining the coalition in Syria," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. France currently only participates in missions against IS in Iraq following that country's request for international help against the jihadists.
Hollande said the French military had so far carried out 200 strikes in Iraq. It has played a minimal role in the recent diplomatic push to find a political solution to the country's civil war, which has included the unprecedented meeting in Doha on Aug 3 between the top US, Russian and Saudi diplomats.
The Saudi and Iranian foreign ministers were later received separately in Moscow, as were representatives of various more moderate Syrian opposition groups. Britain is also thought to be considering military strikes in Syria, with Prime Minister David Cameron trying to organise a new parliamentary vote on the issue in the coming weeks. British lawmakers rejected such action two years ago, in a decision that embarrassed Cameron and drew criticism from the United States. A US-led coalition conducted 11 air strikes against the Islamic State in Iraq on Sunday, as well as four strikes targeting the militant group in Syria, according to a statement released on Monday.
Attacks in Iraq were spread throughout the country, hitting tactical units and destroying vehicles and weapons. An air strike near Tuz destroyed 49 Islamic State fighting positions, as well as four tunnels and a weapons cache, according to the statement from the Combined Joint Task Force. The attacks in Syria were concentrated near Ar Raqqah, Mar'a and Tamakh, hitting a staging area and tactical unit while also destroying five excavators used by Islamic State insurgents.
Elsewhere, Islamic State group jihadists have captured parts of the last major oilfield under government control, halting production at the site, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said on Monday. "IS has taken parts of the Jazal oilfield, but the regime is preventing it from taking the rest," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. He said the IS advances had halted production at the field in central Homs province, with employees pulling out as the fighting drew near. The Observatory said IS had also seized the town of Jazal by the oilfield, and the jihadist group issued a statement on social media claiming to have "liberated" the town.
Abdel Rahman said Jazal, which previously produced around 2,500 barrels per day (bpd), was the last major oilfield under government control in Syria, though the regime has access to oil being pumped by Kurdish forces in the northeast northeast.
The Jazal field has changed hands before, with IS briefly capturing it in June before regime troops retook it. Official oil production in Syria has plummeted since the conflict began in March 2011. By the end of 2014, it was down to 9,329 bpd from a pre-war output of 380,000 bpd.
IS has captured many of Syria's most productive oilfields, predominantly in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor. In the northeastern province of Hasakeh, Kurdish forces control the major Rmeilan field and are refining crude there for the first time. Iraq's defense minister escaped a sniper attack north of Baghdad unharmed Monday, officials said, though one of his guards was wounded in the shooting near Islamic State-controlled territory.
The attack targeted Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi as he traveled in a convoy near the contested oil refinery town of Beiji, a ministry statement said. One guard was wounded, the statement said, without elaborating. The Islamic State group holds about a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria in its self-declared "caliphate." Beiji, home to the country's biggest refinery, has been under near-constant assault since Islamic State militants swept into Iraq last year, though authorities said they liberated the town in November. A US-led coalition is conducting airstrikes to target the Islamic State group across both Syria and Iraq.
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