British pilots embedded with coalition forces have conducted
airstrikes in Syria against ISIS, the UK Ministry of Defence said Friday,
despite Britain's Parliament having voted in 2013 against UK military action in
Syria.
The Ministry of
Defence released the
information in
response to a request from human rights group Reprieve.
"The UK
itself is not conducting air strikes in Syria," a Ministry of Defence
statement said.
"But we do
have a long-standing embed programme with allies, where small numbers of UK
personnel act under the command of host nations. That has been the case in
Syria, although there are currently no pilots operating in this region."
The ministry
added that "when embedded, UK personnel are effectively operating as
foreign troops" and are subject to the mandate of that government.
UK troops have
been embedded with French, Canadian and U.S. forces, of which only the latter
two have been conducting sorties in Syria.
In 2013,
lawmakers in the House of Commons rebuffed Prime Minister David Cameron's call
for a strong response to allegations the Syrian government had used chemical
weapons.
Parliamentary
authorization has only been given for UK
military action in neighboring Iraq as
part of the international coalition against ISIS.
UK forces have
been "contributing" to the coalition mission against ISIS in Syria
"through the provision of intelligence, surveillance and
reconnaissance," the Ministry of Defence said.
The revelation
that some embedded pilots have taken part in airstrikes in Syria comes at a
time when the question of whether UK forces should be involved there has again
been raised.
Jennifer Gibson,
staff attorney at Reprieve, said the documents obtained by the rights group
"indicate that UK personnel have already been involved in bombing missions
over Syria for some time -- making the current debate over whether Britain
should carry out such strikes somewhat obsolete."
"It is
alarming that Parliament and the public have been kept in the dark about this
for so long."
Gibson called
for "an open and honest debate about UK involvement in Iraq and
Syria," but said that before that could happen, the United Kingdom must
come clean about what its personnel already is doing.
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