Today’s defence news includes further coverage of UK operations against Daesh, two years on from the start of the campaign.
UK OPERATIONS AGAINST DAESH
There is further widespread coverage of UK operations in Iraq and Syria on the two year anniversary of Operation Shader, the name for UK military operations against Daesh.
The Mail on Sunday and Scottish Mail on Sunday, Sunday Times, and Sunday Express focus on the role of Reaper pilots and a recent ‘shift cold’ scenario, in which a civilian’s life was saved by diverting the path of a Hellfire missile that was set to hit a group of Daesh terrorists. Air Commodore Dean Andrew, commander of the UK’s Reaper squadron, also describes how intelligence, target checks and authorisation make civilian casualties highly unlikely. Meanwhile, The Mail on Sunday and Scottish Mail on Sunday also claims that RAF Reaper pilots involved in the air strike against Syrian forces in Deir al-Zour are set to be exonerated in an interim report by the US military.
The Scotland on Sunday, Sunday Express and Scottish Sunday Express report that Iraqi Armed Forces, backed by the US-led coalition are ‘on the cusp’ of taking Daesh’s last major stronghold in Mosul according to the Defence Secretary, and that the operation to re-take the city would begin ‘within weeks’. Lt General Mark Carleton-Smith, Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff, is quoted, reiterating that the RAF are keeping the pressure up on Daesh. The Independent also reports that Daesh militants have attempted to shoot down RAF jets with surface-to-air missiles on several occasions, but in vain according to Lieutenant General Mark Carleton-Smith.
You can read more about UK operations against Daesh here.
The latest accounts of UK airstrikes against Daesh are available here.
IRAQ ABUSE CLAIMS
A number of papers continue to report on historical abuse allegations in Iraq and Afghanistan (IHAT), including The Sunday Telegraph and The Sun. The Sunday Times meanwhile claims that serving soldiers have been blocked from appearing at the House of Commons Defence Select Committee.
A Government spokesperson said:
We’ve seen our legal system abused to falsely impugn our armed forces and we are putting an end to that. Equally, our armed forces are rightly held to the highest standards and, whilst rare, where there are credible claims of criminal behaviour, we should investigate them. Stamping out the many spurious claims will mean IHAT is better able to focus on the few credible ones.
On claims of MOD ‘gagging’ of personnel, an MOD spokesperson said:
It is nonsense to suggest the military have been gagged. We have a long standing policy that serving personnel do not give evidence to committees in a personal capacity and it would be inappropriate to expect these individuals to do so while legal proceedings are on-going. MOD Ministers will be appearing in front of the committee.
DIVERSITY
The Sun and Scottish Sun report on diversity in the armed forces.
An MOD spokesperson said:
The Defence Secretary has made it clear we need to do better when it comes to ethnic minorities in our armed forces. That’s why we’ve committed to grow the proportion of new recruits from ethnic minority backgrounds to 10% by 2020. That isn’t about tokenism, it’s about attracting the brightest and the best.
PICTURE OF THE DAY
