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British warplanes destroy IS targets in Iraq

02 October 2014 00:37 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. British Royal Air Force warplanes flying out of a UK air base on Cyprus have destroyed four Islamic State group targets in Iraq over the last two days, the base commander said Wednesday.

RAF Akrotiri station commander, Group Captain Chaz Kennett said that two Tornado GR4 aircraft used bombs and precision missiles to destroy a "heavy weapon position" and an armed pick-up truck. They were supporting Kurdish troops under attack Tuesday from the extremist group in northwest Iraq.

In the second strike early Wednesday, a pair of Tornado planes fired four missiles to destroy two Islamic State group vehicles, including an armed pick-up truck. They were assisting Iraqi government troops west of the capital Baghdad.

British warplanes have been conducting combat missions over Iraq since Saturday, hours after Britain joined the U.S.-led coalition of nations that are launching airstrikes against the extremists.

"The threat from ISIL affects us all and defeating this threat requires an intelligent, patient approach from the coalition of countries who stand together against ISIL," said Kennett, using an alternative abbreviation of the Islamic State group.

Six of the long-serving Tornado warplanes are currently stationed at RAF Akrotiri. Among the weapons systems they carry are Paveway bombs and Brimstone ground attack missiles.

Meanwhile, Cyprus has permitted France to use one of its own air bases in support of missions in the region.

Cyprus government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides told the Associated Press that the air base near the southwestern coastal town of Paphos can be used for "humanitarian and transport missions," but not as a staging post for air strikes.

ontrolnwi ï¿½0funits — Donetsk Republic PM UNITED NATIONS, October 1. /TASS/. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is alarmed by reports of increased violence in Ukraine in the past few days and especially concerned about reports that a school was shelled in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, Ban’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Wednesday.

Such actions as deliberate shelling of schools are inadmissible under any circumstances, Dujarric told a TASS correspondent, adding that the parties to the Ukrainian conflict should stick to commitments in the framework of the memorandum signed in Minsk on September 20 to ensure a stable ceasefire regime and seek a political solution to the Ukrainian crisis.

Earlier, the press service of the Donetsk city council said nine people had been killed as a result of city shellings and 30 injured on Wednesday. In particular, three people - the biology teacher and two parents - died when school No. 57 came under fire; five people received fragmentation wounds.

“The shockwave broke the window frames of the first and second floors; fragments damaged the building’s faÐ·ade and interior,” the city hall said.

Clashes between Ukrainian troops and local militias in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions during Kiev’s military operation to regain control over the breakaway territories, which call themselves the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s republics, have claimed some 3,500 lives, according to the UN, and forced hundreds of thousands to flee Ukraine’s war-torn southeast.

Talks mediated by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on September 5 in Minsk saw the parties to the Ukrainian conflict agree on cessation of fire and exchange of prisoners. The ceasefire took effect the same day but reports said it has occasionally been violated.

On September 20 in Minsk, the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine comprising representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE adopted a memorandum outlining the parameters for the implementation of commitments on the ceasefire in Ukraine laid down in the Minsk Protocol of September 5.