Pointless: UK airstrikes against Daesh in Syria are having little or no effect

Last Updated: February 19, 2016By

On these figures, David Cameron should be given his marching orders.

He promised that UK air strikes on Daesh (called IS by some) in Syria would “cut off the ‘head of the snake'” – he was wrong.

After who-knows-how-many missions since the controversial vote that supported the hugely expensive policy, RAF jets have managed to notch up just seven Daesh casualties.

None were achieved by the Brimstone missile system which David Cameron claimed was our reason for launching the offensive – it is unique to the UK and Saudi Arabia and is supposed to target the enemy intelligently.

On these figures, it seems about as successful as our duff Type 45 naval destroyers and as useful as the Trident nuclear deterrent.

Brimstones have been used in nine raids – with more than one missile deployed in several. It costs £100,000 per missile, meaning the weapon itself has already cost the UK £1 million – pointlessly.

The Ministry of Defence reckons its missions have cut oil revenues to Daesh by 30 per cent, and reduced the organisation’s entire income by one-tenth.

Isn’t Jeremy Corbyn’s alternative plan looking much, much better in the light of these disastrous figures?

Corbyn said a better way would be to concentrate on cutting off Daesh’s income stream – not by haphazard, hit-and-hope air strikes but by cutting off its commercial operations from the rest of the world.

And he said military strikes should be intelligence-led; that is, we should gather information on the location of Daesh’s leaders and then eliminate them with targeted, surgical strikes.

That would be far more effective than the huge waste of time, resources and public money launched idiotically by David Cameron – and supported by far too many MPs who should have known better. Hilary Benn must flinch every time he thinks about it.

The RAF’s celebrated Brimstone missile system has yet to kill or wound a single Isis terrorist in Syria since MPs controversially voted to support bombing raids in December.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request by The Huffington Post UK also revealed just seven Isis militants have been killed or wounded by bombs dropped by RAF jets – either with Paveway bombs or Hellfire drone missiles.

Brimstone, hailed for its accuracy, was the main reason for the UK going into Syria, offering a military capability lacking among the US and French air forces, and was cited repeatedly by the Government and MPs.

Source: Exclusive: RAF Brimstone Missile Has Not Killed Any Isis Militants In Syria, And Only Seven Hit By UK Bombs

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No Comments

  1. NMac February 19, 2016 at 11:50 am - Reply

    Our politicians just didn’t want to be left out of the death, destruction and carnage – evidenced by Gideon Osborne’s smirking and gloating when parliament voted for air strikes.

  2. amnesiaclinic February 19, 2016 at 1:06 pm - Reply

    Sadly, it isn’t about getting rid of them at all. It is just to hang on the coat-tails of the US, be in there with the big bullies, waste money and then have something to turn around and accuse Russia of phantom crimes leading to WW111.
    Any excuse for a world war and more weapons, land and resource grabbing plus austerity with a very big A.
    Sadly, we ain’t seen nothin yet.
    Psychopaths.

  3. boromoor February 19, 2016 at 4:10 pm - Reply

    Does anyone still believe a Cameron promise? If he told me ice was cold I’d have to touch it before I’d believe it.

  4. Dez February 19, 2016 at 4:32 pm - Reply

    That is the price of showing off that the Camoron is one of the big boy club ….NOT.
    God forbid the pilots survive otherwise he will get some negative feedback. Thankfully the planes we have are so outdated not many even get off the ground.

  5. John February 19, 2016 at 8:06 pm - Reply

    Jeremy Corbyn’s plan was ALWAYS more credible….. it’s just a shame that MPs (especially on the Tory side) spent all their time laughing and jeering him and ridiculing him!

  6. mohandeer February 20, 2016 at 5:44 pm - Reply

    The Ministry of Defence reckons its missions have cut oil revenues to Daesh by 30 per cent, and reduced the organisation’s entire income by one-tenth.

    What utter tosh. Russian air strikes have been crippling DAESH oil refinery’s and depots (because the US couldn’t find the two mile long 4 abreast supply lines even when they flew over them) Russia managed to cut their supply by half within a month and have with the help of SAA virtually stemmed the flow from Raqqa to Turkey. The UK has not been involved in any of those strikes in Syria only a total of three in Iraq and the Iraqi’s and US have done most of the damage around Mosul. Why does the UK government make these false claims, unless it believes there are some idiots out there who will actually fall for this tripe.

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