A first: U.K. drone strike kills Briton in Syria

U.K. government sources say that Khan had progressed from jihadist incitement through the Internet to directing potential attacks on commemorative events in the United Kingdom this summer, especially the VE celebrations presided over by the Queen at Westminster Abbey on 10 May, and a ceremony to mark the murder of Lee Rigby in Woolwich on Armed Forces Day on 27 June.

The Guardian reports that U.K. intelligence had him in their sights for a while, and when, on 21 August, he was observed travelling in a vehicle near Raqqa, the unofficial capital of ISIS, with two other ISIS members — Amin and a third, non-Briton – Cameron authorized the strike.

Experts note that about 90 percent of the intelligence the United Kingdom relies on comes through interception of communications by the U.S. NSA and its U.K. counterpart, GCHQ, rather than by the old-fashioned human intelligence.

The specific operational instruction to take Khan out was given within minutes of the intelligence information becoming available, but this decision could have been quickly made because the National Security Council, the U.K. agency which coordinates the work of the country’s various intelligence agencies, had approved Khan as a target for killing months earlier in a meeting attended by Cameron. The attorney general, Jeremy Wright, also attended the meeting and advised that a strike would be legal on the grounds of self-defense.

The operational authorization was given by Defense Secretary Michael Fallon, who issued a firing order to the RAF crew in control of the Reaper drone.

The U.K. Ministry of Defense did not provide details of the operation, but the RAF 39 Squadron crew firing the drone was located either at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire or operating from the U.S. air base at Creech, Nevada.

The RAF has been conducting drone strikes in Iraq as part of the U.S.-led international coalition against ISIS. Without parliamentary authority to expand airstrikes to Syria, the U.K. military activity in Syria was initially limited to surveillance flights. In the spring of this year, however, it emerged that RAF pilots embedded with the U.S. air force were participating in airstrikes in Syria.

Numbers collected by Drones War UK show that the lack of a parliamentary authorization notwithstanding, the number of U.K. drones flown over Syria has risen dramatically in the past few months. In January, only 10 percent of drones operating in the skies over Syria were British. In May, 40 percent of drones operating in Syria were U.K. drones.

Michael Clarke, director-general of London-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), told the Guardian that the government would be open to charges of jumping the gun, given that a government parliamentary motion to authorize the extension of air operations into Syria was expected within weeks. “It now looks as if it has decided to create a momentum to action that might be unstoppable,” Clarke said, though he added the risk for the government was that it might backfire.