RAF jets launch second oilfield attack as Defence Secretary visits Cyprus base

While visiting RAF Akrotiri on 5 December, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said that the strikes were a “pretty impressive achievement”.

British lawmakers approved the bombing of IS targets in Syria on Wednesday.

Fallon was speaking to personnel from 903 Expeditionary Wing at Akrotiri RAF base in Cyprus, from where daily missions are flown against IS.

The eight Tornado aircraft based at RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus, were reinforced with two more Tornadoes and six additional Typhoon aircraft within hours of MPs voting to extend airstrikes into Syria on Wednesday.

The ministry said an unmanned Reaper drone also destroyed an IS truck-bomb south of Sinjar.

Earlier on Friday, it was reported the MoD had warned Prime Minister David Cameron against claiming there were 70,000 moderate Syrian rebels ready to fight IS, fearing the assertion would echo Tony Blair’s “dodgy dossier” on Iraq.

“When I said no boots on the ground, I think the American people understood generally that we’re not going to do an Iraq-style invasion of Iraq or Syria with battalions that are moving across the desert”, he said in an interview with CBS that aired on Thursday. “And it derives from Syria”, he said.

He made no assurances about the length of the campaign, telling them only it was “not going to be short or simple”.

Fallon said the decision will make the streets “In Britain safer, as we take the fight to where Daesh (IS) plot attacks on our people and our allies”. “They are a risky organization like al Qaeda was, but we have hardened our defenses, our homeland has never been more protected by more effective intelligence and law enforcement professionals at every level than they are now”.

“This is a very real threat to us in Britain”.

“We work tirelessly to counter terrorism.

They’ve been making a lot of money out of oil”, said Fallon.