Today’s defence news blog covers issues including Britain’s nuclear deterrent and an investigation into a fatal shooting in Iraq that found a soldier acted in self-defence.
UK SECURITY / NUCLEAR THREAT
The Independent and Sun cover Defence Secretary Michael Fallon’s speech yesterday in which he set out the case for Britain’s nuclear deterrent. Both newspapers focus on comments made after the speech in which Mr Fallon expressed fears that a terrorist group such as Daesh could obtain nuclear weapons. He is quoted: “It is obviously a concern that we will see non-state actors with the finance and perhaps some of the technical know-how seeking to get hold of nuclear weapons. That is why we maintain very strict export control criteria for the technologies involved and why we need to be on our guard.”
The Sun also writes that Mr Fallon said Britain’s enemies would see disarmament as a weakness and that abandoning the deterrent would be “an act of supreme irresponsibility”.
You can find news, facts and figures on the Successor submarine programme here.
IRAQ FATALITY INVESTIGATIONS
The Daily Telegraph, Sun and Daily Mail write about a report by the Iraq Fatality Investigations (IFI) team which found a British soldier killed an Iraqi in self-defence during a raid in 2003. The inquiry concluded that Muhammad Salim was shot dead in his house after British soldiers had been misled by false intelligence from one of their own interpreters involved in a tribal feud. The reports say that the competing tribes then tried to cover up the dispute to pin all the blame on the British soldiers and lied about the dead man being unarmed.
The Mail focuses on the solider involved in the inquiry. The paper writes that he was twice cleared of unlawfully killing Salim, but then faced a further investigation when the man’s family tried to get compensation. In what the Mail and Sun describe as a strongly worded attack on law firms pursuing claims against the military, the chairman of the IFI, Sir George Newman, concluded that if a fake document had come to light sooner and Mr Salim’s family had been given ‘balanced and measured legal advice’, the case may never have been pursued.
Armed Forces Minister Penny Mordaunt is quoted in the Sun and Mail articles. Her full statement is below:
I am grateful to Sir George Newman for his diligent investigation which concluded that UK Forces acted appropriately and in self-defence. On behalf of the Government I wish to express regret for the death of Mr Salim. But for calculated lies by a rival tribe, this incident would have been avoided. I note the concerns raised in the report regarding the decision to initiate legal proceedings in this case. This Government continues to develop measures that will ensure our Armed Forces are not subject to persistent legal claims that undermine their ability to do their job.
TERRORISM TRIAL
There is widespread coverage of the trial of the so called ‘drive-by jihadis’. The papers write that two British students face life in jail after they were found guilty of masterminding Daesh’s first attempted UK terror plot to kill soldiers and police. The Daily Telegraph writes that one of the men, Tarik Hassane, was believed to be in contact with ‘Jihadi John’. The papers note that the pair planned to target the Parachute Regiment Territorial Army barracks in White City, London.
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