Tornado jets bomb islamic state IED production facility

Tornado jets have bombed a base for an improvised explosive device team in eastern Syria.

The MoD say that intelligence identified a small building north-east of Abu Kamal as a base for terrorists planting improvised explosive devices.

Two Tornados carried out an attack with a Paveway IV on Monday the 22nd of October, which destroyed the target and caused a number of secondary blasts as the explosives inside detonated.

Operation Shader

By September 2017, the Ministry of Defence had announced that over 1,000 personnel were engaged in theatre and that the Royal Air Force had conducted around 900 airstrikes, flying over 2,200 sorties, killing 3,000 Islamic State fighters.

Last year, it was reported that the Royal Air Force is 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.

As of March last year, the MoD says the operation has cost the UK taxpayers £265 million so far. As of April 2017, 37 Hellfire missiles, 20 Brimstone missiles, 30 unspecified/other armaments were used in the operation against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.