Summary

Sunday 4 April – a Reaper struck a small group of Daesh terrorists in northern Syria.
Detail

On Sunday 4 April, an RAF Reaper, armed with Hellfire missiles, identified a small group of Daesh terrorists in northern Syria, some fifty miles west of Al Hasakah. Having checked that there were no civilians nearby, the Reaper’s crew attacked the terrorists, striking the target successfully.

Previous update

Royal Air Force aircraft have continued to support security operations by the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service in northern Iraq to eliminate small pockets of Daesh terrorism. Daesh extremists were confirmed to be based in a network of caves in the Makhmur mountains, south-west of Erbil, where the RAF has been actively assisting the Iraqi ground operations since 10 March. Since the caves were assessed to be a particularly challenging target, three Typhoon FGR4s were tasked to conduct an attack using Storm Shadow missiles on Monday 22 March, the remote area having first been checked to ensure that no civilians would be placed at risk. The strike on the Daesh targets there was assessed by subsequent surveillance to have been a success.