United Kingdom Minister: Illogical to Attack ISIS in Iraq But Not Syria

Senior ISIS leader Tariq Al-Harzi was killed by a coalition airstrike in Syria last month, a US official said Thursday.

“And in that context the Prime Minister does think that MPs [lawmakers[ should be thinking about these issues”.

Mr Fallon made clear, however, that the Government would not stage a new vote of MPs unless there was “some consensus” across the House for widening the existing RAF operations against IS in Iraq.

Failing to take on Islamic State (IS) in its Syrian heartland could be seen as “weakness” by the jihadis, a Cabinet minister has claimed as the Government moved towards recommending British military action to take on the terror group.

The spokeswoman said that “a lot has happened” since the chemical weapon attack by Syrian president Bashar Assad which sparked the previous proposal for airstrikes.

On Wednesday, he said “there is an illogicality about not being able” to strike ISIS positions in Syria, because the militants “don’t differentiate between Syria and Iraq”. However, MPs were not asked at the time to authorise strikes across the border in Syria.

The Prime Minister is desperate to avoid another humiliating defeat – and will want to be sure of a Commons victory before seeking MPs’ approval.

In the Commons, shadow defence secretary Vernon Coaker set out Labour’s conditions for support: “We all need to be clear about what difference any action would make to our objective of defeating ISIL, about the nature of any action, its objectives and the legal basis”.

Acting party leader Harriet Harman said: “Isil brutalise people, they murder people and they are horrifically oppressive, so everything that can be done to stop them must be done”.

“I’m not aware of any instructions that were given by the United States to other nations about the manner in which they would or would not arm Peshmerga forces”, said John Kirby, U.S. State Department spokesman.

Some sites in Syria had been ransacked so badly they no longer had any value for historians and archaeologists, and Unesco was also increasingly anxious about Libya, she said.

Prime Minister David Cameron later said IS posed “an existential threat” to the West, and its members in Iraq and Syria were plotting “terrible attacks” on British soil.

“The figures of kidnapped, raped and captivated women at the hands of Daesh terrorists reflect the degree of brutality and savagery of this group”, she said.

“At the end of the day, we need credible, moderate partners on the ground”, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said at the same briefing regarding the train and equip program in Syria.