The Government’s November 2015 response to the Foreign Affairs Committee report on
extending British military action to Syria says that the main legal basis for UK military
action in Syria is collective self-defence of Iraq, with the individual self-defence of the UK
and collective self-defence of other states (but not Security Council authorisation) as
additional legal bases.
Duration of the mission
It is widely acknowledged that the campaign against ISIS will be longstanding. During the
Commons debate in September 2014 David Cameron warned Members of Parliament
that “we should not expect this to happen quickly. The hallmarks of this campaign will be
patience and persistence, not shock and awe.” In October 2015 the Foreign Secretary,
Philip Hammond, suggested that a three-year timeframe was the current expectation of
military commanders.
The UK’s contribution
In September 2014 Parliament voted to support offensive military action in Iraq. However,
that vote did not extend to offensive operations in Syria.
RAF Tornado GR4 and the Reaper remotely piloted air system (RPAS) are conducting
reconnaissance missions and airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq, with support aircraft including
the new Voyager tanker/transport aircraft and the Sentinel surveillance and
reconnaissance aircraft. The UK is the second largest contributor to the coalition air
campaign in Iraq, conducting 8% of airstrikes in Iraq.
In October 2014 the Ministry of Defence authorised the conduct of UK surveillance
missions over Syria. At present the UK does not participate in offensive military operations
in Syria.
Since November 2014 the UK has been providing training and military advice to the Iraqi
security forces and the Kurdish Peshmerga in the north of the country. In early June 2015
the Government announced that a further 125 British military personnel would deploy to
Iraq in order to bolster that training mission. To date the UK has trained over 2,000 Iraqis.
The UK also participated in the US-led programme to train moderate Syrian opposition
forces which was suspended in October 2015.
Approximately 850 British military personnel are involved in operations against ISIS. An
estimated two-thirds of those personnel are deployed in the region in support of the air
campaign; while the remaining personnel are on the ground in Iraq providing training and
military advice. Those personnel are not combat troops.
The net additional costs of the military air operation (Tornado, Reaper and air-to-air
refuelling) are being met from the Treasury Special Reserve; while the costs of training and
equipping the Iraqi and Kurdish security forces, and the provision of key enablers, are
being met from the Deployed Military Activity Pool (DMAP).
Extending airstrikes into Syria?
In early July 2015 the Secretary of State for Defence indicated that the Government could
seek further parliamentary approval for extending operations into Syria provided that
“there is a sufficient consensus behind it”. Momentum has been building in recent weeks,
in particular in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Paris on 13 November 2015. On 20
November, the UN Security Council passed a resolution calling for states to take ‘all
necessary measures’ against ISIS.
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