ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – British jet fighters dodged surface-to-air missiles fired by Islamic State (ISIS) militants in Iraq this week as the Royal Air Force (RAF) is intensifying its bombing campaign against those militants in Mosul ahead of an expected assault next month. Britain’s Lieutenant General Mark Carleston-Smith, the deputy chief of defense staff, said counter-measures on Britain’s jets have kept them safe from the ISIS fire. “We have always made the operational assumption that the Daesh [ISIS] inventory might, at some juncture, include surface-to-air missiles,” he told reporters, according to the Independent newspaper. “There have been reports of engagements – several are of UK aircraft – but no material effect as a result of the defensive aids [systems] they are carrying, and the tactics the coalition employs. They detect the missile as it is launched,” he added. ISIS recently claimed responsibility for shooting down a Syrian aircraft over Deir Ezzor this month as well as an unmanned American drone over Syria this week. UK Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said that the RAF is targeting over 100 locations in Mosul ahead of a long-planned offensive there and is currently operating “at the highest tempo in a single theater for over 25 years.” Britain is carrying out these airstrikes using Panavia Tornado and Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets operating from its airbase in Cyprus. “Though Mosul is a large and complex city,” Fallon said, “it will fall – and will fall soon. I expect the operation for its encirclement to begin in the next few weeks.”
