Thursday 22 December – Tornados destroyed a tank south-west of Sinjar in northern Iraq…Operations against the Daesh terrorist network have continued unabated during the holiday period, with Royal Air Force aircraft supporting Iraqi operations to liberate Mosul, and the advance on Raqqah by Syrian Democratic Forces. On Thursday 22 December, two Tornado GR4s, based at RAF Akrotiri, were tasked against one of the few tanks operated by Daesh, which had been spotted by coalition surveillance aircraft hidden under a tarpaulin in an orchard to the south-west of Sinjar. The tank was destroyed by a direct hit from a Brimstone missile.