United Kingdom ‘letting down allies says top military commander

Fifteen Islamic State fighters made up the remainder of the death toll, the Britain-based Observatory said, after a series of strikes on Tuesday that hit the group’s Syrian stronghold.

But Nicholas Houghton has said it “makes no sense” not to extend the mission to areas where the militants – also known as ISIL and Daesh – have their powerbase.

The British defense and foreign secretaries have said they want forces to be able to fight the Islamic State in Syria as well as in Iraq, and that it is absurd to stop planes at a border that the militant group does not recognize, especially since its command centers are in Syria.

MPs voted two years ago to block airstrikes after Ed Miliband opposed them, and Labour’s pacifist new leader Jeremy Corbyn has said bombing Syria is not the answer.

But the Government is still pushing to bomb the war-torn country and Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has said not doing so is “morally indefensible”.

Fallon said the government would hold a series of intelligence briefings for lawmakers over the next few weeks to try to build a political consensus for extending Britain’s involvement in the conflict, the BBC reported.

And asked if the issue could galvanise the response from worldwide powers to Isis in Syria, Mr Hammond told Andrew Marr that “on this particular issue, we see eye to eye with the Russians on lots of things”.

“And so to be denied our ability to play a proportionate role in that makes no sense”, he added.

The plan has was never resubmitted for a second vote but an influential committee of United Kingdom politicians recently advised against action.

Lt Gen Brown also rejected criticism that the US was not using air strikes as much or effectively as possible, saying coalition forces were striving to avoid civilian casualties that could help recruitment for the IS.

And as the United Kingdom marked Remembrance Sunday with ceremonies being held across the country including the service at the Cenotaph, Sir Nicholas warned against “poppy Stalinism” and argued people should be allowed to do what they wanted.

“It’s not just as simple as, ‘go to Turkey, ‘ ” General John R. Allen, the special USA envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State, told Congress last month.

“I think that certainly members of the Armed Forces will always wear their poppies and they are heartened by members of the public that wear theirs”.