{"id":48071,"date":"2014-09-27T12:07:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-27T12:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=94ee7cb30de53bd8ef229ed6f490d78d"},"modified":"2014-09-27T15:37:16","modified_gmt":"2014-09-27T15:37:16","slug":"news-story-raf-tornado-jets-fly-ready-for-attack-role-over-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=48071","title":{"rendered":"News story: RAF Tornado jets ready for attack role over Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Updated:<\/em> New MOD statement following the conclusion of the first mission over Iraq.<\/p>\n<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Royal Air Force Tornado GR4 aircraft, currently deployed in Cyprus, have been flying intelligence-gathering missions over Iraq for a number of weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Today, 27 September, following the parliamentary approval given yesterday, in company with other aircraft from the international coalition, 2 Tornados conducted armed reconnaissance operations over areas of Iraq where terrorists threaten the civilian population.<\/p>\n<p>Although on this occasion no targets were identified as requiring immediate air attack by our aircraft, the intelligence gathered by the Tornados\u2019 highly sophisticated surveillance equipment will be invaluable to the Iraqi authorities and their coalition partners in developing the best possible understanding of <abbr title=\"Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant\">ISIL<\/abbr>\u2019s disposition and help acquire potential targets for future operations, either by aircraft or Iraqi ground forces.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image embedded\">\n<div class=\"img\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"RAF Tornado pilot\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/image_data\/file\/31110\/MNT-OFFICIAL-20140927-111-017.jpg\"><\/div><figcaption><abbr title=\"Royal Air Force\">RAF<\/abbr> Tornado pilot climbing into his aircraft [Picture: Corporal Neil Bryden <abbr title=\"Royal Air Force\">RAF<\/abbr>, Crown copyright]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Furthermore, we know that the very presence of coalition air power over Iraq has a significant impact on <abbr title=\"Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant\">ISIL<\/abbr>\u2019s efforts to attack the Iraqi people. With no effective defence against air strikes, and knowing the precision with which coalition aircraft can hit them, the terrorists are forced to be much more cautious, keeping their forces dispersed and movement inhibited.<\/p>\n<p>They also know that should they concentrate to deliver an attack against Iraqi or Kurdish troops, aircraft are likely to arrive overhead very soon afterwards.<\/p>\n<p>The Tornados were supported by an <abbr title=\"Royal Air Force\">RAF<\/abbr> Voyager refuelling tanker. Also, <abbr title=\"Royal Air Force\">RAF<\/abbr> transport aircraft have in the past 24 hours delivered further supplies to the Kurdish authorities to aid their efforts in the fight against <abbr title=\"Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant\">ISIL<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n<p>For more information see <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/isil-uk-government-response\"><abbr title=\"Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant\">ISIL<\/abbr>: UK government response<\/a> page on GOV.UK<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that Royal Air Force jets have conducted armed reconnaissance operations over areas of Iraq.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48071"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48071"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48098,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48071\/revisions\/48098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}