Today’s broadcast and print news continues to focus on the terrorist attack in Tunisia, and the response of the Tunisian and British governments. Several front pages cover speculation that the number of British victims could increase, and that security in the UK has been stepped up in response.
Tunisia terrorist attack
The number of Britons killed in the terrorist attack in Tunisia is expected to rise, according to several papers this morning. The attack is already the biggest loss of British life to terrorism since the 2005 London bombings. The Daily Express, The Guardian, and The Daily Mail report that the Metropolitan police have increased security at Wimbledon in the wake of the killings of British holidaymakers, and that security was tightened for the Armed Forces Day parade on Saturday. The Times adds that police officers, soldiers, emergency services, and intelligence officials will take part in a counter-terrorism readiness exercise this week.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is providing consular assistance to UK citizens in Tunisia, and two Rapid Deployment Teams are in Sousse providing support for British nationals at hospitals and hotels. Anyone with concerns about friends or family who are in Tunisia should contact the FCO Hotline on 0207 008 0000
As the Prime Minister announced this morning on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the UK will today send an RAF C-17 aircraft to Tunisia, in order to collect and bring home British nationals who were injured in the attack.
ISIL
Writing exclusively for The Telegraph, the Prime Minister said Britain is "united in shock and in grief" following the deaths of at least 38 tourists at the hands of ISIL militant Seifeddine Rezgui. He writes that Britain must become "intolerant" of extremist Islam and "be stronger at standing up for our values”. The Prime Minister indicates that the Government is now preparing to take a far more hardline approach towards tackling extremism, as families across the country discover they have been affected by the worst terrorist atrocity to hit Britons in almost a decade. In his article, the Prime Minister says that we can only defeat terrorism by promoting the British values of "peace, democracy, tolerance and freedom". In a follow-up article, The Telegraph reports comments by the Foreign Secretary that deployments of British troops to Iraq and Syria would be an unhelpful response and that British forces must not be seen as “an army of occupation”.
The Daily Express reports comments by Col Richard Kemp, former commander of UK forces in Afghanistan, that Britain should deploy special forces to Syria, Libya, and Iraq to combat ISIL, and significantly increase coalition air strikes. Col Kemp said the regiment should be expanded and equipped for long-distance desert warfare while Allied airstrikes should increase 10-fold. A comment piece by Max Hastings in The Daily Mail argues that the UK must do more on the intelligence front to track and target terrorists while continuing air strikes against ISIL targets, and that calls to deploy Western troops on the ground are mistaken.
As announced by the Prime Minister earlier this month, the UK is set to more than treble its counter-IED training effort, with the deployment of almost 100 training personnel across up to four locations across Iraq including Taji, Besmaya and Al Asad. There are nearly 800 UK personnel supporting operations against ISIL in the Middle East and wider region.
UK troops overseas
The Daily Mirror reports that more than 4000 British troops are serving overseas, many of them in some of the world’s most dangerous war zones. Of 2300 in the Middle East, nearly 800 are involved in operations against ISIL, while the Army has also sent dozens of bomb disposal experts to North African countries to help local forces tackle terrorist threats. The UK has also deployed a number of military trainers to Ukraine to help develop the defensive capabilities of Ukrainian forces, who are combating separatist forces in the East of the country. The MOD released the figures after a House of Commons question by Sir Nicholas Soames MP.
This echoes the article by Defence Secretary Michael Fallon in the Sunday Telegraph last weekend, in which he stated that the UK’s military is more than capable of keeping the country safe and described the many operations currently being undertaken by our forces around the world.
Mr Fallon said:
Today, 4000 brave and capable men and women of our three Armed Forces are working around the clock on 21 different joint operations in 19 countries. Our military are training local forces in countries as far apart as Ukraine and Nigeria.
Few nations can match that footprint – or have the ability to respond so rapidly, and at scale, to challenges.
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