Britain Launches Airstrikes Against ISIS In Syria Hours After MPs Back Cameron
The RAF carried out the airstrikes just hours after MPs voted 397 to 223 for military action after a 10-hour debate.
PA
MPs voted 397 to 223 – a comfortable majority of 174 – on Wednesday night to extend UK airstrikes from Iraq into Syria to hit ISIS territory. Some 66 Labour MPs were among those backing military action – far higher than estimates earlier in the day.
Hours later, four RAF jets took off from a British air base in Akrotiri, Cyprus, striking targets in Syria, according to a defence official who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Reports had claimed that strikes could begin overnight on Wednesday but government sources refused to comment for "operational" reasons. More information on the nature of the targets was to be released later Thursday.
The UK now joins France, the US, and Russia in bombing targets in Syria as part of a wider strategy to wipe out the extremists.
Kicking off the 10-hour debate in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Cameron urged MPs from all sides to back military action against "women-raping, Muslim-murdering, medieval monsters". Speaking weeks after terror attacks in Paris that killed 130 people, the PM warned that ISIS was "plotting to kill us and radicalise our children right now".
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who allowed Labour MPs a free vote amid deep divisions in his party, warned against an "ill-thought-out rush to war". Yet 11 of his shadow cabinet backed airstrikes, including shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn, deputy leader Tom Watson, and shadow health secretary Heidi Alexander.
Shadow chief whip Rosie Winterton is thought to have abstained on the issue. However, Cameron would have won a majority without Labour's support. The vast majority of Tories backed the motion – only seven voted against, and seven abstained – and the Democratic Unionists and the Liberal Democrats also supported it.
A cross-party amendment to block airstrikes, tabled by Tory MP John Baron, was defeated by 390 votes to 211 votes.
US president Barack Obama welcomed the vote, saying: "We look forward to having British forces flying with the coalition over Syria, and will work to integrate them into our Coalition Air Tasking Orders as quickly as possible."
BBC
Applause is very rarely heard in the Commons chamber but MPs from all sides loudly clapped and cheered Benn – while Corbyn sat in stony silence.
Benn said: "We are here faced by fascists – not just their calculated brutality but their belief that they are superior to every single one of us in this chamber tonight and all of the people we represent.
"They hold us in contempt. They hold our values in contempt. They hold our belief in tolerance and decency in contempt. They hold our democracy, the means by which we will make our decision tonight, in contempt. And what we know about fascists is that they need to be defeated. … My view is that we must now confront this evil. It is now time to do our bit in Syria."
After the debate, Benn was deluged with MPs congratulating him on his speech – with some even asking him to sign their order paper.