British and Australians are fighting with Islamic State terrorists in Iraq. Source: Twitter
THE Islamic State will succeed in setting up a caliphate on the shores of the Mediterranean and bring terror to the streets of Britain if urgent action is not taken to defeat it, the British Prime Minister has warned.
David Cameron said the West was involved in a generational struggle against the Islamist terrorists and Britain must use all of its “military prowess” to halt their advance.
In a strongly worded article in the UK’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper, Mr Cameron wrote: “If we do not act to stem the onslaught of this exceptionally dangerous terrorist movement, it will only grow stronger until it can target us on the streets of Britain.”
The Conservative Party leader spelled out the case for action in Iraq beyond humanitarian aid to battle the “poisonous and extremist ideology.”
While he backed the argument that Britain should not become involved in a ground war in Iraq, he stressed that security could only be achieved “if we use all our resources – aid, diplomacy, our military prowess.”
He added: “This threat cannot simply be removed by air strikes alone. We need a tough, intelligent and patient long-term approach that can defeat the terrorist threat at source.”
Mr Cameron said Britain needed to work with countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Egypt, Turkey “and perhaps even with Iran”.
He described Is as: “single-minded, determined and unflinching in pursuit of its objectives.
“Already it controls not just thousands of minds, but thousands of square miles of territory, sweeping aside much of the boundary between Iraq and Syria to carve out its so-called caliphate,” he said.
“If it succeeded we would be facing a terrorist state on the shores of the Mediterranean and bordering a Nato member.”
Outlining his plan to challenge the threat he said that an assessment was already underway to determine what equipment Kurdish fighters in Iraq required, following last week’s European Union vote to supply the under-resourced forces.
But his Middle East policy has been slammed by a high-ranking Anglican bishop who had te backing of Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
“We do not seem to have a coherent or comprehensive approach to Islamic extremism as it is developing across the globe,” the bishop of Leeds, Nicholas Baines, wrote in the letter, sent to the Observer newspaper.
Defence Minister Michael Fallon said on Saturday that Britain would keep up its surveillance flights over northern Iraq to try to stop more minority groups coming under jihadist attack.
Britain deployed Tornado fighter jets to Akrotiri earlier this month, which will now be joined by the Royal Air Force’s most modern surveillance aircraft, the Boeing RC-135 Rivet Joint.
Kurdish forces backed by US warplanes battled on Saturday to retake Iraq’s largest dam from jihadist fighters, a day after militants carried out a “massacre” of dozens of villagers.
Two months of violence have brought Iraq to the brink of breakup, and world powers relieved by the exit of long-time premier Nouri al-Maliki were sending aid to the displaced and arms to the Kurds
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