British lawmakers vote overwhelmingly to join air strike coalition against IS

British lawmakers on Friday voted overwhelmingly to join anti-jihadist air strikes in Iraq as U.S.-led raids in Syria disrupted the Islamic State group’s lucrative oil-pumping operations. The House of Commons voted by a majority of 524 to 43 after the main political parties all approved military action saying that “lessons from the past” of the 2003 Iraq War had been learned. UK Prime Minister David Cameron warned the campaign could last for “years” as dissenting MPs in the debate questioned the duration and scope of the operation. Washington is eager to build the broadest possible coalition to tackle IS, which has captured large areas of Syria and Iraq, and declared an Islamic “caliphate.”

This is not a threat on the far side of the world. Left unchecked, we will face a terrorist caliphate on the shores of the Mediterranean.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron, ahead of vote

Britain’s Royal Air Force would join warplanes from the United States, France, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Jordan hitting IS targets. Following the vote, British action is expected within days at the latest despite planned anti-war protests. In recent days, Washington and its allies have carried out bombing targeting the funding sources of what U.S. President Barack Obama has branded a “network of death”. In the latest air strikes, U.S. planes destroyed four tanks operated by militants in Syria as well as several vehicles and jihadist positions in Iraq, the Pentagon said. The U.S.-led coalition also bombed oil refineries in east and northeast Syria where IS jihadists extract crude for sale on the black market, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group.

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