ISIS resort to ‘suicide mission’ surface missile attacks on RAF fighters closing in on jihadi territory
Iraq's second city, Mosul, is set to be surrounded within weeks after the most intense RAF bombing campaign in 25 years
ISIS MONSTERS are trying to down RAF fighters with a barrage of surface-to-air missiles, frontline pilots have warned.
They are dodging the daily threat while spearheading the most intense bombing campaign for 25 years.
And after 24 months of relentless strikes the RAF now have Iraq’s second city Mosul in their sights before a mass offensive, expected within weeks.
Air Commodore Martin Sampson, who heads Britain’s air campaign in Iraq and Syria, said attacking British jets was often a suicide mission for the terrorists.
He said: “It’s a risky tactic for them because they show themselves.
“There have been instances where the coalition has received surface-to-air fire. We have the ability to plot it with pinpoint precision — and then we strike back.”
Mosul was overrun by ISIS in 2014, forcing half the population to flee.
But Defence Secretary Michael Fallon revealed yesterday the city, and the 3,000 IS fighters who remain, will be surrounded within weeks.
So far RAF crews have hit more than 100 targets in and around Mosul to soften the ground for the attack by Iraqi forces.
After two years the daily bombardment is paying off as ISIS now holds just ten per cent of Iraqi territory.
And troops on the ground have trained more than 25,000 Iraqi and Peshmerga troops.
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The Sun joined an operation that saw five jihadis killed in two separate strikes, plus the destruction of an IED.
Aerial images show the impact of RAF missiles against a truck bomb being moved along the Tigris river by barge.
A Tornado jet used a precision Brimstone missile to kill two jihadis hiding under a bridge in northern Iraq on Wednesday.
Fallon blasts Russia
RUSSIAN commanders should be tried for war crimes if they deliberately attacked a UN aid convoy, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon insisted yesterday.
Twenty people died in the suspected Russian airstrike in Syria on Monday night.
Moscow had pointed the finger after an RAF Reaper drone was implicated in a US-led strike which accidentally killed 60 Syrian troops fighting IS.
But Mr Fallon said of the convoy deaths: “If this was a deliberate attack, then it’s Russian commanders who should be in the dock, not British troops.”