An unprecedented air strike in Syria, earlier authorized by the UK government, killed two Britons fighting with Islamic State, David Cameron has announced.
Reyaad Khan, a 21-year-old from Cardiff who had featured in a prominent ISIS recruiting video last year, was the target of the RAF drone attack. Ruhul Amin, 26, who was also British and ISIS fighter, was among two others killed on August 21 in a drone air strike on the Syrian city of Raqqa on 21 August.
Cameron claimed that Khan represented a specific threat to UK security, and that he had exercised the country’s “inherent right to self-protection while justifying the killings of the two in the sovereign territory of another country. the Prime Minister confirmed that the recent drone air strikes were not a part of the coalition’s general fight against Isis in Syria.
“It was necessary and proportionate for the individual self-defence of the UK,” Cameron said on Monday. Cameron further confirmed the killing of another Briton, 21 year old Junaid Hussain, who was killed by a separate US air strike.
Further justifying the assassination of Khan, the British Prime Minister claimed that attack against Khan was “entirely lawful” and that the attorney general had been consulted. He added that the threat to Britain from Islamist extremist violence was “more acute today than ever before”.
“We took this action because there was no alternative. In this area, there is no government we can work with. We have no military on the ground to detain those preparing plots. And there was nothing to suggest that Reyaad Khan would ever leave Syria or desist from his desire to murder us at home. So we had no way of preventing his planned attacks on our country without taking direct action,” Cameron told MPs.
On the other hand, French President François Hollande said that with a view to carrying out air strikes against Islamic State, France would soon begin reconnaissance flights over Syria.
While holding the ISIS responsible for the present an unprecedented refugee crisis in the EU and a number of terrorist attacks carried out in France and other countries, Hollande however ruled out any immediate possibility of sending ground troops to Syria.
Commenting that any such steps would strengthen the position of the country’s leader, Bashar al-Assad, or help him remain in power, Hollande said: “In the end, Assad must go”.
Saying that France was again ready to join the coalition operation over Syria, Hollande said that the country had been willing to carry out air strikes against Assad’s regime after it used chemical weapons against civilians.
“Faced with terrorism, France has always faced its responsibility … some say we have to intervene on the ground in Syria. I consider it to be useless and unrealistic to send French troops there. So no, France won’t be sending ground troops to Syria, but we will be ready to conduct air strikes depending on intelligence from reconnaissance missions,” he added.
“Reconnaissance flights will take place and afterwards we will make decisions. Assad is responsible for the situation in Syria. The solution is political, but a solution cannot be found that leaves Assad in place,” Hollande added.
(Source:www.theguardian.com)
Reyaad Khan, a 21-year-old from Cardiff who had featured in a prominent ISIS recruiting video last year, was the target of the RAF drone attack. Ruhul Amin, 26, who was also British and ISIS fighter, was among two others killed on August 21 in a drone air strike on the Syrian city of Raqqa on 21 August.
Cameron claimed that Khan represented a specific threat to UK security, and that he had exercised the country’s “inherent right to self-protection while justifying the killings of the two in the sovereign territory of another country. the Prime Minister confirmed that the recent drone air strikes were not a part of the coalition’s general fight against Isis in Syria.
“It was necessary and proportionate for the individual self-defence of the UK,” Cameron said on Monday. Cameron further confirmed the killing of another Briton, 21 year old Junaid Hussain, who was killed by a separate US air strike.
Further justifying the assassination of Khan, the British Prime Minister claimed that attack against Khan was “entirely lawful” and that the attorney general had been consulted. He added that the threat to Britain from Islamist extremist violence was “more acute today than ever before”.
“We took this action because there was no alternative. In this area, there is no government we can work with. We have no military on the ground to detain those preparing plots. And there was nothing to suggest that Reyaad Khan would ever leave Syria or desist from his desire to murder us at home. So we had no way of preventing his planned attacks on our country without taking direct action,” Cameron told MPs.
On the other hand, French President François Hollande said that with a view to carrying out air strikes against Islamic State, France would soon begin reconnaissance flights over Syria.
While holding the ISIS responsible for the present an unprecedented refugee crisis in the EU and a number of terrorist attacks carried out in France and other countries, Hollande however ruled out any immediate possibility of sending ground troops to Syria.
Commenting that any such steps would strengthen the position of the country’s leader, Bashar al-Assad, or help him remain in power, Hollande said: “In the end, Assad must go”.
Saying that France was again ready to join the coalition operation over Syria, Hollande said that the country had been willing to carry out air strikes against Assad’s regime after it used chemical weapons against civilians.
“Faced with terrorism, France has always faced its responsibility … some say we have to intervene on the ground in Syria. I consider it to be useless and unrealistic to send French troops there. So no, France won’t be sending ground troops to Syria, but we will be ready to conduct air strikes depending on intelligence from reconnaissance missions,” he added.
“Reconnaissance flights will take place and afterwards we will make decisions. Assad is responsible for the situation in Syria. The solution is political, but a solution cannot be found that leaves Assad in place,” Hollande added.
(Source:www.theguardian.com)
