• MoD said all the operations conducted by the RAF had been successful

Arab News

LONDON: The UK’s Royal Air Force (RAF) carried out four airstrikes in May against targets belonging to the terrorist group Daesh in Iraq.

The first, carried out on May 8, targeted a Daesh stronghold west of Tuz Khurmatu in the north of the country.

The second assault, on May 10, targeted a cave system that militants were using to shelter in. Two more attacks were launched on May 13 and May 26.

Two operations were conducted in April, marking the first such airstrikes by UK forces against Daesh in seven months. The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the airstrikes came in response to an increase in Daesh activity in Iraq.

Multiple attacks by the group in Salahuddin, Kirkuk and Diyala provinces in early May left multiple people dead and wounded, as militants tried to capitalize on uncertainty in Iraq following the coronavirus outbreak.

The MoD said all the operations conducted by the RAF had been successful, and it had flown daily patrols across the region since Daesh lost control of its territory in Iraq and neighboring Syria in March 2019.

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the strikes demonstrated that the country’s armed forces were doing all they could to protect it from “all those who seek to do us harm.”