Cameron: Drone strikes were authorised on British citizens
THE GOVERNMENT authorised an unprecedented “precision” airstrike to kill British nationals in Syria last month, Prime Minister David Cameron said yesterday.
Reyaad Khan, a 21-year-old from Cardiff who was affiliated with Islamic State (IS), was targeted and killed on 21 August by an RAF drone near Raqqah in Syria, Cameron said.
British aircraft are understood to have already carried out nearly 300 airstrikes over Iraq and provided assistance to coalition partners in Syria – but until yesterday, the government had not been known to direct any targeted killings of British nationals. Cameron said two other IS fighters were also killed in the strike on 21 August.