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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as condemned British airstrikes against ISIS in his country as 'harmful and illegal'
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as condemned British airstrikes against ISIS in his country as 'harmful and illegal'.
As the UK vows to round-the-clock step up missions against the terror group, President Assad said it would 'support terrorism' as he mocked David Cameron's 'classical farce' of claiming there were 70,000 moderate fighters in Syria ready to take on ISIS.
He is unhappy that Britain did not ask for permission to launch airstrikes in his country, but Mr Cameron has insisted he can play no part in the long-term future of Syria after targeting his own people in deadly attacks.
The row came as Defence Secretary Michael Fallon urged the public to be prepared for 'setbacks' in the long campaign against ISIS, warning: 'War is a messy business.'
More fighter jets have been sent to British military base RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus after MPs overwhelmingly backed airstrikes in Syria in a crunch vote on Wednesday night.
Within 57 minutes of the vote, RAF Tornado GR4 aircraft flew their first offensive operation against ISIS inside Syria, carrying out strikes against six targets in the extensive oilfield at Omar.
On Thursday night, Tornados conducted missions over Syria and Iraq, taking out a terrorist sniper team in Iraq with a precision Paveway IV guided bomb.
Then on Friday night, Tornado GR4s and Typhoon FGR4s again targeted Omar oilfields, using Paveway guided bombs to hit wellheads.
The RAF will start flying five missions a day – up from two previously – with two warplanes involved in each, six days a week.
But Mr Assad condemned the involvement of Britain launching airstrikes in Syria.
'It will be harmful and illegal and it will support terrorism, as happened after the coalition started its operation a year or so [ago] because this is like a cancer,' he told The Sunday Times in an interview carried out on Wednesday.
'You cannot cut out part of the cancer. You have to extract it. This kind of operation is like cutting out part of the cancer. That will make it spread in the body faster.'
He added: 'You cannot defeat them [Isis] through airstrikes alone. You cannot defeat them without co-operation with forces on the ground.
'You cannot defeat them if you do not have buy-in from the general public and the government . . . . They are going to fail again.'
Today it emerged that at least 32 Islamic State fighters were killed and 40 more wounded in airstrikes in Syria's Raqqa province.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 15 blasts shook the northern and eastern outskirts of Raqqa today.
However it was not clear which country in the US-led coalition carried out the bombing raids.
Mr Cameron faced intense criticism in the Commons last week over his claim of 70,000 moderate fighters on the ground in Syria who could be supported by British airstrikes.
Ministers have been forced to clarify that they are disparate groups who are a long way from being a cogent fighting force.
In a withering attack on the British Prime Minister, Mr Assad added: 'This is a new episode in a long series of David Cameron's classical farce ... Where are they? Where are the 70,000 moderates he is talking about? There is no 70,000. There is no 7,000.'
Britain has been bombing ISIS targets in Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi government for more than a year.
But after the Paris terror attacks in which 130 people died, French President Francois Hollande appealed for Britain to join the fight in Syria.
Initital strikes have been against the Omar oilfields, but and many of the airstrikes will be carried out at night to try to limit the risk of civilian casualties.
But Mr Fallon warned they could not be avoided altogether.
'War is a messy business; you cannot eliminate all risk,' he told the Sunday Times.
'It is very important for the campaign that we avoid mistakes. You can't completely eliminate mistakes in wartime, but we do our best to ensure that any civilian damage is minimised.
'I also have to be sure that what's being proposed is absolutely consistent with the rules of engagement that I set and that the prime minister has approved.'
The Russian airforce has struck nearly 1,500 targets all over Syria over the past nine days, the military said, its bombers now flying under cover of strategic fighter jets following the downing of a plane by Turkey last week.
Defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a briefing that the Russian air contingent carried out 431 sorties and bombed 1458 targets in several regions of Syria, without mentioning whether any of them were affiliated with the Islamic State jihadist group.
Among the targets was a 'command post' near the town of Khnaifess in the Homs region, and a 'large ammunitions stockpile' near Morek in Hama region, which was captured from the Syrian army in early November.
The airstrikes also 'destroyed a large militant base' at a strategic location near Kassab in Latakia region, leading to Syrian army 'taking the high ground,' the ministry said.
In Hama region, the airstrikes 'liquidated' several field commanders near rebel-held Latamina, and bombed several strategic high-ground locations, including Hazm al-Abyad.
As British fighter jets unleash a series of airstrikes on Syria, the latest reports indicate that Libya is set to be the new target in the war on ISIS.
With the terror group under increasing pressure in the Middle East, there is increasing evidence that it is looking to its growing stranglehold in the North African nation as a back-up position.
In many ways, Libya offers a far more strategic position that its current de-facto capital in Raqqa, Syria.
It is right on the very edge of Europe, and offers the terrorists' triptych of airport, seaport and oil.
‘In Libya, there is the perfect mix ready to explode and in case it explodes, it will explode just at the gates of Europe,' warned the European Union high representative, Federica Moherini, in the summer.
In October, Wolfgang Pusztai, Austria's former Libya defence attach?, told the British parliament's foreign affairs committee: ‘The more Islamic State is put under pressure in the Middle East, the more active it will be in Libya.'
France and the U.S. have already begun sorties over Libya, and the UK will likely be hot on its key coalition partners' heels.
Reports issued last week confirmed that France has flown its first reconnaissance missions over the coastal town of Sirte, which ISIS has already claimed for its so-called caliphate.
The French jets joined the American drones which have already conducted missions over the war-town town.
The U.S. has also already launched attacks against ISIS targets in Libya. In June, two F-15s bombed what was claimed to be an al-Qaeda gathering at Ajdabiya. In November, they struck at Derna, with the Pentagon claiming to have killed a high-profile ISIS leader.
ISIS claimed the strategically-positioned town of 80,000 people early this year, and the UN estimates that there are now 1,500 fighters in the city.
In January, it killed 22 Christians, 21 of them Egyptians, in a brutal massacre on the Sirte shoreline which was subsequently released as a gruesome online video.
An uprising against ISIS in August was brutally quashed and when jihadi fighters regained control of the town, they set fire to the hospital and burned 22 patients alive.
Across the town, desperate residents report frequent hangings and crucifixions as the jihadis imposes their terrifying doctrine.
Men are banned from shaving their beards, while women are forced to wear dark robes.
Some 85 of the town's children have been paraded as ‘suicide cubs', ready to blow themselves up for the so-called caliphate.
The terror group's rapid expansion across the North African nation poses an imminent threat to southern Europe.
ISIS have recently been targeting oilfields in Ajdabiya, situated east of Sirte, Libya
Sirte provides direct access to the Mediterranean, lying just 400miles southeast of Sicily.
Italy's foreign minister, Paolo Gentiloni, has made it clear he expects the next international emergency to be launched from Libya, announcing an international summit in Rome to discuss the issue.
Neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia have also tried to raise the alarm about the increasing threat posed by ISIS in Libya.
Following last month's slaughter of 12 president guards by a Libyan-trained bomber, Tunisia has closed its notoriously porous borders with the country.
On Friday, it banned Libyan planes from the capital, fearing suicide attacks from the skies.
The unreliable border between Tunisia and Libya previously provided ample opportunity for the establishment of training camps.
The gunman, Seifeddine Rezgui, who launched the attack on the Tunisian resort of Sousse was trained at an ISIS-affiliated camp in Libya, before killing 38 tourists – 30 of them British – as they sunbathed at the popular resort.
He had trained at Sabratha, the same camp that taught the gunman who killed 22 mostly European tourists at the Tunisian capital's Bardo museum.
Just days ago, Libyan government officials announced that suicide pilots were being trained by ISIS on imported flight simulators in Sirte.
ISIS is believed to have already claimed control of the town's military airport, the largest in Libya, and observers fear that they are planning terrorist attacks from the base against major European cities, using empty commercial airliners.
For ISIS, moving into the power vacuum left in Libya by the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 was child's play.
Nato-led airstrikes, like those currently ongoing in Syria, led to the downfall of the Libyan leader, with the help of so-called moderate Islamist rebels.
In his absence, jihadists from the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group – which had previously tried to overthrow Gaddafi in the 1990s but failed – arrived back home.
First came the Ansar al-Sharia group, which launched attacks on British and French diplomats before killing the U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens in September 2012.
Then, last summer, ISIS seized its chance to seize new ground in North Africa after the nation's elections sparked a civil war.
Following the elections, Libya was left juggling two opposing administrations that are entangled in a violent, nationwide power struggle.
On one side, there is a self-declared Libya Dawn government in Tripoli dominated by Islamists; but they oppose ISIS's brutality and are eager to force ties with an international community which has, until now, refused to recognise its legitimacy.
On the other is the official, Western-backed government, which has retreated to the small town of Tobruk near the Egyptian border – ready to make a swift escape to Cairo if the Islamists take over.
ISIS began in the eastern coastal town of Derna, a campaign driven by 300 militants of the al-Battar Brigade, well-practiced in combat in Syria.
In the absence of a functioning central government, taking Libya for its own didn't present a challenge for ISIS.
The same British RAF Tornados and Typhoons, newly arrived in Cyprus, are within strike range of North Africa, and with Defence Secretary Michael Fallon's warning that the campaign will not be a short one, it may not be long before the UK sets its sights on Libya.
Syria's Assad says British airstrikes are 'illegal and will fail' | Daily Mail Online
