UK defence chief rules out ground troops in Iraq, Syria

The head of Britain’s defence vowed Friday to employ more aerial capabilities in the fight against Daesh, but ruled out deploying ground troops.

“We’re not proposing to send combat troops back into Iraq or into Syria,” Michael Fallon said during a joint press conference with US Defence Secretary Ash Carter at the Pentagon.

“Prime Minister Haider Abadi made it very clear to me when I was last in Baghdad that they do not want to see British troops on the ground there. And with great respect, they don’t want to see American troops there,” he added.

Last week the British Parliament voted to authorise the its military to conduct airstrikes on Daesh targets in Syria.

The UK was already playing “the second biggest part against these terrorists in Iraq”, according to Fallon, by providing 60 percent of the anti-Daesh coalition’s reconnaissance sorties and up to one third of the airstrikes.

“The vote last week means that we can now treat this as one theatre and use our expertise against ISIS-Daesh in its heartland,” he said. “We have brought more planes to the region and we have more than doubled the number of missions that we fly by day and by night.”

He also warned that Daesh may carry out plots against the US and the UK, noting that the coalition should not allow the idea of plots to hold it back from stepping up the fight against the militant group.

He said the UK has doubled its airstrikes on Daesh since last week when it targeted oil infrastructures controlled by the militant group, adding that the number of airstrikes will increase.

Carter told reporters that President Barack Obama will on Monday visit the Pentagon to discuss enhancing the fight against Daesh and measures to counter the group’s plots on American soils.

“He’ll hear not only from us here in the Defence Department, his senior commanders in the field, about the military dimensions of the campaign to defeat ISIL, but also this is a National Security Council meeting,” Carter added.

He also pointed out that the US’s focus will to defeat Daesh as the “parent tumor of Syria and Iraq” but he said the militant group will be pursued across the region and North Africa, especially Libya.