Typhoon jets bombed a tunnel north of Baghdad where Islamic State fighters had taken up residence, the MoD has revealed.
According to a release, a number of Islamic State fighters were tracked to tunnels hidden beneath an extensive palm grove some twenty miles north of Baghdad; Typhoons carried out a successful attack, again with two Paveway IVs, against the tunnels and the terrorists within.
According to a release, operations continued south-east of Hajin on New Year’s Day, with a Reaper providing overwatch for the Syrian Democratic Forces on the ground.
Surveillance support was given to a coalition air strike on an Islamic State strong-point, and the Reaper’s crew then tracked terrorists as they attempted to take up new positions, engaging them with a Hellfire missile.
Background on Operation Shader
By September last year, the Ministry of Defence had announced that over 1,000 personnel were engaged in theatre and that the Royal Air Force had conducted around 1,000 airstrikes, flying over 2,800 sorties, killing over 3,000 Islamic State fighters.
Last year, it was reported that the Royal Air Force was operating at its most intense for 25 years in a single theatre of operation which far outstripped the UK involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan – RAF jets have dropped 11 times more bombs (1,276 strikes) on Syria and Iraq in the preceding 12 months than they had in the busiest year of action in Afghanistan a decade previously.
Only just got back ?