A SENIOR UNITED States spokesman for the forces involved in the air war against Daesh in Syria and Iraq has praised the work done by the RAF’s Typhoon and Tornado aircraft.
Up to ten Tornado GR4’s have been played a crucial over Iraq since September 2014 while six Typhoon’s from RAF Lossiemouth were deployed in December.
Last week the SNP’s defence spokesman at Westminster tabled questions over civilian casualties sustained from the RAF’s involvement.
However, Colonel Steve Warren, the US spokesman for the US-led coalition forces fighting Daesh, said that the aircraft involved have been “using the most accurate systems in the history of air war” – and praised RAF and allied air crews for helping pave the way for a final assault on the Daesh stronghold in Raqqa.
Col Warren said the RAF attacks on Daesh-controlled oil wells had seen the terror group’s ability to make millions of dollars selling oil on the black market “vastly reduced”. He added that coalition forces were now on the verge of a final assault on Raqqa, the Syrian town that Daesh has used as a main base in the region.
With the help of around 650 RAF attacks the Colonel said that Daesh had been forced to flee from around 40% of the territory they once held in Iraq. He said that the air forces had been targeting Daesh in a “three-pronged attack” against their ground troops, precision strikes against their leadership and the attacks on the oilfields.
He added that RAF strikes also took out warehouses where Daesh had stored millions of dollars in currency – and claimed that around half of the Daesh fighting force were now dead.
He said: “Using intelligence methods, we can discover where this cash is and to the tune of tens of millions of dollars which we have seen go up in smoke.”