The footage released for the first time shows crowds of civilians being forced at gunpoint to gather in a Syrian town to watch an execution. As the IS fighters prepared to carry out the execution, a Reaper drone operated by pilots 2,000 miles away at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, unleashes its deadly arsenal, killing a sniper keeping watch on a roof nearby. The IS fighters were unable to continue with the barbaric killing after this as the terrified crowds scattered in panic.
The Ministry of Defence last night released the first footage from inside the Qatar military HQ of UK personnel in action against Islamic State to illustrate operations in the warzone. The MoD said it could not target jihadis on the ground directly in the May attack because civilians could have been caught up in the blast. By taking out the sniper, it forced the IS fighters to run for their lives.
The drone had been flying over the Syrian town of Abu Kamal when it spotted crowds starting to gather. As a van unloaded two shackled prisoners in front of the crowd, the RAF drone pilots watching on screens from thousands of miles away were clear that they were about to witness a public execution.
The mission was overseen from the heavily fortified combined air operations centre (Caoc) at the Al Udeid air base in Qatar. The location of the centre was kept secret until recently.
Air Commodore Johnny Stringer, commander of all UK air operations in Iraq and Syria, said of the video: "The individual who we engaged was a sniper in over-watch to shoot civilians who sought to move away from the execution, let alone to protect the planned execution itself. That particular example for us very much brought it home because civilians had been herded in, forced literally at gunpoint, to go and watch this going on in their hundreds."
A top commander revealed today that secret strikes by RAF warplanes against jihadists in Iraq and Syria have stopped a series of home-grown terror attacks. Air Commodore Johnny Stringer admitted British citizens who are jihadists had also been killed in the missions against Islamic State strongholds. He said that the Britons that have been killed were not targeted because of their citizenship, but due to the threat they posed.
He revealed the UK had taken out Britons to stop specific attacks, adding: "By dint of their activity, by being members of Daesh and frankly engaging the people we are here to protect, they (British citizens) become valid military targets and that's the way we look at it."The extremist group has a special unit dedicated to mounting atrocities in the UK and Europe, he said. But in the latest phase of the mission to crush IS, he said RAF jets and drones were forcing the jihadis on to the back foot, saying: "We... have helped stop potential attacks in the UK."
Speaking from Al Udeid base in Qatar, where air operations against IS are controlled, Air Cdre Stringer said that if UK jihadists were planning attacks on home soil they would be taken out irrespective of their nationality. He would not say how many British citizens have been killed as a result of the strikes.
Watch the video of the drone taking out the sniper below.
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