Just hours after British bombers carried out a raid on an oil field in Syria which ISIS uses to collect oil and sell to fund their acts of terrorism, British Prime minister is fighting with opposition members about the wisdom of such raids and calling for permission to increase British military involvement in Syria.
Cameron says the bombing will “keep the British people safe”, while Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn says Cameron’s claim “doesn’t stack up” and could even make the situation worse.
Coming to the Prime Minister’s aid is British foreign secretary Hilary Benn who is urging Members of Parliament (MPs) to “confront the evil” posed by ISIS.
The Government is expected to vote on endorsing further military action later today. A vote last night to block airstrikes was defeated 390 votes to 211.
During last night’s debate before the vote was taken, Cameron faced calls to apologize for calling opponents of military action “terrorist sympathisers”. The Prime Minister did not apologize, adding there is “honour” at stake in the vote for or against military action.
Corbyn abandoned attempts to call for a party vote on the issue, saying his members can have a free vote without party pressure.
Cameron is calling on MPs to “answer the call from our allies” and take action against the “woman-raping, Muslim-murdering, medieval monsters” of ISIS.
MPs faced a simple question: “Do we work with our allies to degrade and destroy this threat and do we go after these terrorists in their heartlands from where they are plotting to kill British people, or do we sit back and wait for them to attack us?”
Based on information from British intelligence, there are 70,000 moderate opposition fighters in Syria, with the majority being members of Free Syrian Army, and there were a further 20,000 Kurdish fighters with whom Britain could also work with.
He says from now on his government will be referring to ISIS forces as Daesh as much as possible, because “this evil death cult is neither a true representation of Islam nor is it a state”.
Daesh has negative connotations in the Middle East and its use is seen a way of challenging the legitimacy of the group.
Apart from last night’s oil field raid, The UK is providing surveillance, intelligence and other logistical support to countries fighting IS in Syria. The British Royal Air Force has carried out thousands of raids on ISIS targets in Iraq since Parliament approved military action there last year.
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