The planes of the Royal Air Force (RAF) British held Thursday its first bombing oil fields of the Islamic State (EI) in Syria, just a few hours after receiving the green light from Parliament to go to war. AFP
RAF Tornado aircraft "made the first offensive operation in the skies of Syria," said the British Ministry of Defense, and all indications "that the attacks were successful."
The planes used "guided Paveway IV bombs to carry out attacks on six targets in the vast oil field Omar, 35 miles (about 56 kilometers) inside Syria on its eastern border with Iraq," the ministry said.
According to the UK authorities, the main source of income comes from EI oilfields on its territory, especially in eastern Syria.
"White infrastructure elements were carefully selected from the oil field, making sure that will have a significant impact on the ability of Daésh (Arabic acronym EI) to extract its oil to finance terrorism," the ministry.
London joins the United States, France and Russia and other countries that attack the Islamic State for months.
The British government presented its decision to participate in the coalition as a response to the French for help after the attacks of 13 November in Paris, which left 130 dead, and the need to weaken the jihadist organization before possibly prejudicial in the United Kingdom.
Cameron calls time
Prime Minister David Cameron called for the first time after operations, "we must be patient and persistent, this will take time."
"What we ask our drivers to do is complex and difficult," he said.
The attacks began hours after parliament authorized the bombings in Syria by 397 votes in favor and 223 against after more than ten hours of debate.
British aviation was already bombarding positions of EI in Iraq, which explains the speed with which it took action.
"I think the House (of Commons) has made the right decision to keep the UK safe," Cameron tweeted.
The foreign minister of the Conservative government, Philip Hammond, said the "UK is safer tonight with the decision taken by the Parliament."
The US president, Barack Obama, also welcomed: "Since the beginning of the campaign against EI, UK has been one of our most valuable in combating partners," Obama said in a statement, in which he stressed that looks forward to the RAF to join operations in Syria.
The permission of Parliament comes two and a half years after rejecting participate in military action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to use chemical weapons against the population of their country.
The doubts created by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the United Kingdom participated at the behest of former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair weighed into the debate.
"The specter of Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya hangs over this debate," said Corbyn, to which Cameron replied: "This is not 2003. We can not use past mistakes to justify indifference or passivity."
The two wars claimed the lives of more than 600 British soldiers and some believe that provoked the attacks of 2005 in London. As the mayor of the British capital, Ken Livingstone, who last week accused Blair: "If we had not invaded Iraq, the four men had not killed 52 Londoners know."