Lord Blencathra – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Blencathra on 2016-09-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in conjunction with UK allies, they plan to increase the level of military activity against British jihadis fighting for ISIL in Iraq and Syria; and whether their objective is to kill such individuals on the battlefield before they return to the UK as potential terrorists.

Earl Howe

UK military action in Syria and Iraq is against Daesh targets, regardless of nationality, as December’s Parliamentary motion made clear. As part of the global coalition, the UK is making a substantial air contribution to the campaign to defeat Daesh in both countries and providing training to Iraqi (including Kurdish) security forces taking the fight to Daesh on the ground. The Secretary of State for Defence (Michael Fallon) announced in June that we would deploy up to 250 personnel to the Al Asad Air Base in Iraq to increase our training contribution.