This morning’s defence news includes reporting on the assistance from the RAF to Iraqi ground forces taking back Fallujah from Daesh and widespread coverage of yesterday’s Battle of Jutland commemorations.
Fallujah
The Daily Express, The Sun and Channel 4 News all reported that the RAF carried out airstrikes in support of the Iraqi battle to free the city of Fallujah from Daesh. The Guardian and The Times also report that Daesh militants in central Fallujah are believed to have prevented at least 20,000 residents from leaving the city and are offering fierce resistance to advancing Iraqi forces.
The latest air strike update can be seen here.
Battle of Jutland
The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, Daily Express, The Sun and Daily Star cover yesterday’s Jutland commemorations. A hundred years to the day after the First World War’s biggest naval engagement, Princess Anne and her husband Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, Prime Minister David Cameron, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Germany’s President Joachim Gauck joined the families of those who fought in the epic battle to remember the 8,648 seamen who lost their lives.
Border security
In continued coverage around Britain’s border security, The Express and The Sun carry articles demanding the government diverts Royal Navy ships into the Channel to drive the smugglers back to France, these sentiments are echoed by a letter from a former Naval Reserve officer in The Times.
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said:
There is currently no request for military support in the English Channel.
Syria
The Guardian reports UN officials and activists have said that at least two dozen people including several children have been killed in northern Syria in the latest apparent attack by forces loyal to the Bashar al-Assad regime on medical facilities in opposition-held areas. The article states that the bombing of the national hospital and its surroundings in Idlib city was the latest incident in a systematic aerial campaign against medical personnel and facilities that has gone unpunished despite its intensification over the last year and a half.
Memorial vandals
The Daily Express reports that vandals who smashed their way into a cemetery chapel and vandalised a war memorial are being hunted by detectives. The article states that the vandals ripped down a Union flag and took letters from a First World War memorial at Blaydon cemetery in Durham.
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