RAF kills TEN times the amount of ISIS fighters in Iraq than in Syria as MPs’ pledge to ‘obliterate terrorist targets’ falls flat
Fresh MoD figures show that ministers’ pledge to obliterate terrorist targets has been 'missed'
TEN times the amount of ISIS fighters have been killed by the RAF in Iraq than in its heartland of Syria, The Sun can reveal.
Fresh MoD figures show that ministers’ pledge to obliterate terrorist targets in their civil war-ridden powerbase has fallen flat.
Only 188 ISIS fighters have been killed and a further 12 wounded by British sorties over Syria in almost 12 months of air operations.
And almost half of those were on just one day, when multiple air strikes killed 80 of the extremists holed up in buildings defending the town of Manbij on August 2.
Meanwhile across the border in Iraq, 1,747 insurgents have been killed and 168 wounded since air strikes began there in September 2014.
The figures come as the first year’s anniversary for RAF operations over Syria approaches at the start of December.
Figures obtained by The Sun with Freedom of Information requests reveal there have been only 30 RAF attacks in total on Syrian soil since MPs gave the mission the green light during a tense Commons vote.
The majority – 19 – have been precision strikes, using Hellfire missiles.
Just six ISIS fighters were killed in Syria through out the whole of October.
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And only one was killed in the first week of this month, on November 5 in another Hellfire missile strike.
None were killed at all in March, and just one was taken out in May.
In a major report earlier this year, MPs branded Britain’s war against ISIS in Syria just “a token gesture”.
No10 has been blamed for the low kill rate for failing to commit enough resources to a full fight against its crazed leaders.
Only a handful of SAS and SBS troops have been allowed to cross into Syria, who are crucial for guiding in strikes on targets.
Tory MP and former Army officer Tom Tugendhat urged the MoD to step up its operations in Syria.
Mr Tugendhat told The Sun: “Recapturing Iraqi cities like Mosul has shown only too clearly the brutality of ISIS and why we must destroy them wherever we find them.
“They are sending people to attack our communities, just like they did in Paris, Brussels and Nice, and we can’t allow them a safe haven in Syria to plan terrorist assaults against us.”