Syria: First UK drone attack on British citizens

The UK just created history on 21 and 24 of August 2015 by committing targeted assassinations of British citizens residing in Syria using drone strike.

"Cardiff-born Reyaad Khan, 21, and Ruhul Amin, from Aberdeen, died last month in Raqqa, alongside another fighter, in the first targeted UK drone attack on a British citizen, Cameron told MPs," reported the BBC. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34178998

The British government claims the lads had been plotting "barbaric" attacks on UK soil and they had no other choice but to kill them just in case. The media called Junaid Hussain a "cyber jihadist" and pictured him with a rifle in a photo.

Both Khan and Hussain had been involved in actively recruiting IS "sympathisers" and plotting to attack "high-profile public commemorations" taking place in the UK this summer, the prime minister said.

"There was a terrorist directing murder on our streets and no other means to stop him."

This makes no sense. He was overseas. They could have just prevented them from returning to Britain, arrested him and given him a trial. And what do they mean by attacking? Like he might have gone there to pass out flyers about the Syrian situation? What exactly. I guess we will never know since he's dead. God rest his soul.

"Khan was killed in a precision strike on 21 August by a remotely piloted aircraft, "after meticulous planning" by the UK government, while he was travelling in a vehicle," reported BBC. Another British national, Junaid Hussain, 21 and from Birmingham, was killed in a separate air strike by US forces in Raqqa on 24 August.

Two years ago, Britain refused to enter the war to help Syrian refugees but last September approved British participation in air strikes against IS targets in Iraq only. This recent action is the first time Britain has droned anyone at all in Syria, so it is interesting that their first choice as a target was their own citizens. To spare themselves the hassles of being prosecuted or retaliated by a foreign government, the UK has simply taken to using their own citizens for target practice overseas. I guess that would limit the legal repercussions!

We do not know enough information right now to determine whether the UK was just practicing their weaponry on some soft targets or if any of the victims were potential political activists in some way. Officials told the media the UK would "act immediately [in Syria] and explain to Parliament afterwards."

The strike on Khan was "the first time in modern times that a British asset has been used to conduct a strike in a country where we're not involved in a war", said Cameron. "Britain has used remotely piloted aircraft in Iraq and Afghanistan but this is a new departure and that's why I thought it important to come to the House and explain why I think it is necessary and justified."