{"id":55778,"date":"2015-03-25T11:49:48","date_gmt":"2015-03-25T11:49:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=fdbf3562fde3f5a0950d7eec336e18b5"},"modified":"2015-03-25T11:49:48","modified_gmt":"2015-03-25T11:49:48","slug":"news-story-mod-responds-to-defence-committee-report-on-isil-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=55778","title":{"rendered":"News story: MOD responds to Defence Committee report on ISIL action"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The UK has been and remains at the forefront of the international diplomatic and military effort to support the Iraqi Government and moderate Syrian Opposition to defeat ISIL. The Committee\u2019s conclusions are based on out of date or inaccurate information and do not recognise the major role the UK Government has played since the beginning of operations.<\/p>\n

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon Said:<\/p>\n

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The report recognises the UK is right to respond actively to the threat posed by ISIL but we reject the Committee\u2019s conclusion that we are making a \u2018strikingly modest\u2019 contribution. We have played a major role in the military campaign from the start and have conducted 194 airstrikes in Iraq, second only to the US.<\/p>\n

Throughout the campaign we have focused our military contribution where it can have the most impact \u2013 supporting Iraqi forces from the air, providing vital intelligence, surveillance and air-to-air refuelling capabilities. The RAF has contributed assets that few coalition partners can match and the US and other partners have acknowledged the impact these are having on the campaign.<\/p>\n

The UK now has over 600 military personnel supporting operations, including over 140 in Iraq. We have trained over 1000 Iraqi ground forces and have gifted around 400 tonnes of equipment and ammunition. As a world leader in countering improvised explosive devices (C-IED) we are leading the coordination of the coalition\u2019s C-IED training programme.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Clear strategy – In contrast with the Committee view that the UK lacks a clear strategy for the fight against ISIL the Government has been clear that the first priority is to minimise the threat to UK security and interests in the Middle East by pursuing three objectives. These include disrupting threats to the UK, working as part of an international coalition to defeat ISIL and to discredit its violent ideology and to mitigate the impact of ISIL and other violent extremist groups. The criticisms of the Service Chief\u2019s \u201cinability or unwillingness\u2026 to provide a clear, and articulate statement of the UK\u2019s objectives\u201d are unfounded and based around an outdated understanding of their role within Defence as responsibility for setting out a clear governance structure for military strategy does not lie with the Service Chiefs.<\/p>\n

Number of airstrikes – The Committee also stated that the UK has only conducted 6% of air strikes \u2013 this is inaccurate. It is based on figures for Iraq and Syria and we only have parliamentary permission to conduct strikes over Iraq. <\/p>\n

Number of military personnel – The Committee has also inaccurately compared the UK\u2019s commitment with that of other countries, for example they stated that there were 400 Australian military personnel outside of Kurdish regions compared to only three UK military personnel. To date the Australians have deployed a similar number to the UK\u2019s current deployment of around 140 military personnel. <\/p>\n

Outside of Defence, the UK has contributed \u00a339.5 million in humanitarian support to Iraq and the UK Government is supporting Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi\u2019s steps towards political reconciliation and economic reform. Furthermore, the UK is taking action to counter ISIL\u2019s finances and messaging and to restrict the flow of foreign fighters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Government has responded to the Defence Select Committee\u2019s report on the UK\u2019s activity to tackle ISIL, rejecting the suggestion that the UK\u2019s contribution has been \u201cmodest\u201d.<\/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\/55778"}],"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=55778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}