TerrorismA first: U.K. drone strike kills Briton in Syria
British prime minister David Cameron revealed that a U.K. drone strike, which he had authorized, has targeted and killed Reyaad Khan, 21, a U.K. citizen who was a senior prominent member of Islamic State. It was the first targeted killing of a British citizen by U.K. drone. Another British citizen who was an ISIS member, Ruhul Amin, 26, was in the car carrying Khan and was also killed in the attack. Cameron said that three days later, a U.S. drone strike, carried out in coordination with the United Kingdom, killed a third British citizen — Junaid Hussain, 21. The Obama administration has said that only one American citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, was taken out in a targeted killing.
British prime minister David Cameron revealed that a U.K. drone strike, which he had authorized, has targeted and killed Reyaad Khan, 21, a U.K. citizen who was a senior prominent member of Islamic State.
It was the first targeted killing of a British citizen by U.K. drone.
Another British citizen who was an ISIS member, Ruhul Amin, 26, was in the car carrying Khan and was also killed in the attack.
Cameron said that three days later, a U.S. drone strike, carried out in coordination with the United Kingdom, killed a third British citizen — Junaid Hussain, 21.
Speaking to the Commons on its first day Parliament is back from its summer break, Cameron justified the strikes on the grounds that Reyaad Khan represented a “clear and present danger.”
The prime minister told MPs: “In an act of self-defense and after meticulous planning Reyaad Khan was killed in a precision airstrike carried out on 21 August by an RAF remotely piloted aircraft while he was travelling in a vehicle in the area of Raqqah in Syria.
“In addition to Reyaad Khan who was the target of the strike, two [ISIS] associates were also killed, one of whom — Ruhul Amin, has been identified as a U.K. national. They were [ISIS] fighters and I can confirm there were no civilian casualties.”
The prime minister said that both Hussain and Khan were involved in actively recruiting ISIS sympathizers and “seeking to orchestrate specific and barbaric attacks against the west.” He added: “We should be under no illusion. Their intention was the murder of British citizens.”
The Obama administration has said that only one American citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, was taken out in a targeted killing. Al-Awlaki, a New Mexico-born Islamic preacher, was one of the ideological leaders of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and the founder of the organization’s glossy English-language magazine Inspire. Another American was killed in the Hellfire missile attack in Yemen in September 2011 which killed al-Awlaki, but he was not the target of the attack.
Two weeks after al-Awlaki was killed, his 16-years old son was killed when U.S. drones struck an AQAP formation in the mountains east of the Yemeni capital Sanaa.
