A fatal drone strike carried out by the UK has been publicly acknowledged by the government for the first time since Labour came to power.
The precision strike in Syria took place on Tuesday 25 February targeting a “known Daesh terrorist”.
Daesh is another name for the Islamic State, often shortened to ISIS. There have been concerns about the terrorist group gaining ground in the wake of the revolution in Syria.
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According to a Ministry of Defence statement today, the terrorist was tracked across the Aleppo region of Syria by a Reaper drone.
The drone’s remote crew “kept a close watch” on the ISIS member until they were “alone on foot”, and could be “struck with minimal risk to any civilians”.
The drone then “successfully targeted the terrorist using the Reaper’s Hellfire missile system”.
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The UK mission to combat ISIS is known as Operation Shader, and was something that Sir Keir Starmer said should continue when he became prime minister.
However, the operational decisions are made by the military and Number 10 would not have signed off on the strike.
The UK last confirmed it had launched a strike in Syria on 18 June 2024, when Rishi Sunak was prime minister.
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Following the fall of Syrian leader Bashar al Assad, the United States confirmed it had killed the leader of ISIS in the region, Abu Yusif.
ISIS controlled swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq from 2014, with millions of people living under the Islamist group at the peak of its powers.
The militants enforced an extremist interpretation of Islamic law and carried out mass killings of minority groups.
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However, they were pushed back by a coalition of forces that included the UK and US and had lost control of all of their Middle East territory by 2019.
In December, after Assad’s regime was defeated by a fighting force led by Ahmad al Sharaa, he has made efforts to bring together many of Syria’s warring factions. But in the disorder created by years of fighting, there are fears that ISIS fighters will be able to regroup.
They have continued insurgency efforts in parts of Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, while their affiliates still have a presence in parts of Africa.
