US And Arab Allies Attack IS Targets In Syria
Updated: 3:02pm UK, Tuesday 23 September 2014
The US and five Arab countries have been carrying out airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria for the first time.
Fighter jets, bombers and drones as well as 47 Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from two US ships in the northern Persian Gulf and the Red Sea were deployed in the aerial raids.
At least 70 IS fighters are said to have been killed in dozens of attacks, which also targeted al Qaeda veterans.
The strikes form part of the expanded military campaign against IS insurgents that was authorised two weeks ago by President Barack Obama. He is due to meet foreign leaders at the UN General Assembly later.
US Central Command said Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain and Qatar had either taken part in or supported the Syria raids although their exact roles were unclear.
The strikes did not involve the UK but Prime Minister David Cameron supported them and will discuss at the UN what contribution Britain can make, according to Downing Street.
Damascus said Washington informed Syria's UN envoy before launching the bombings against the Sunni insurgent group which have grabbed swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq.
The US also carried out eight aerial raids on its own west of Aleppo against al Qaeda veterans - known as the Khorasan group - who were thought to be planning an "imminent attack" against US and Western interests.
The US military said it had destroyed or damaged multiple IS targets around the militant stronghold of Raqqa as well as Deir al Zor, Hasakah and the border town of Albu Kamal.
It said targets included IS fighters, training compounds, headquarters and command and control facilities, storage facilities, a finance centre, supply trucks and armed vehicles.
Residents in Raqqa said last week that IS was moving underground after Mr Obama signalled on September 11 that air attacks on its forces could be expanded from Iraq to Syria.
The group had evacuated buildings it was using as offices, redeployed its heavy weaponry, and moved fighters' families out of the city, the residents said.
The strikes follow a summit of world leaders in Paris where agreement was reached to form a broad coalition to counter the advance of IS in Syria and to provide military aid to Iraq to fight the extremist network.
Military leaders have said about two thirds of the estimated 31,000 IS militants are in Syria.
Photographs taken in Raqqa showed wreckage of what IS fighters said was a drone that had been shot down.
Pieces of the wreckage, including what appeared to be part of a propellor, were shown loaded into the back of a van.
International efforts to combat the group have taken on an added urgency after the beheading of US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and British aid worker David Haines, and the threat to kill UK hostage Alan Henning.
Meanwhile, a second propaganda video of another British hostage John Cantlie has been released by IS.
Speaking to the camera and seemingly under duress, he addresses the coalition of states targeting the group, though it is not clear when the video was filmed.
"Everyone now is getting involved," he said. "Denmark and France have sent air power, Britain is arming the Kurds, Iran is sending troops and contractors are being sought in Iraq.
"Even Bashar al Assad, until earlier this year the most hated and villainised tyrant in the Arab world, is being approached for permission to go into Syria.
"It's all quite a circus. Not since Vietnam have we witnessed such a potential mess in the making."
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