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More UK MPs question Syria drone strike

Senior UK lawmaker, Lord Macdonald

More UK politicians are now questioning legal justification of the country’s drone strikes in Syria.

Senior lawmaker, Lord Macdonald from Liberal Democrats cast doubt about legal justification for the drone strikes such as that on two British militants on August 21. 

His statement comes after UK Prime Minister David Cameron revealed that British forces carried out a drone airstrike in Syria killing three Daesh terrorists, including two young Britons. Speaking before the British parliament on Monday, Cameron added that the prime target of the drone attack was 21-year-old Reyaad Khan from the city of Cardiff, but the August 21 airstrike also killed two other Daesh terrorists, including another British citizen identified as 26-year-old Ruhul Amin.

Macdonald urged the government “to be more transparent about the reasons for ordering the strike including asking parliament’s intelligence and security committee to look at the evidence and ordering the attorney general to give his point of view to the House of Commons.”

In an interview with the state-funded BBC, he said: “It’s not enough for a minister to give a set of fairly bland reassurances…  There are serious legal considerations. It can be legal, it can be lawful, but we need to be reassured that in this case it was.”

Meanwhile, another UK lawmaker Baroness Kennedy referred to August airstrike in Syria saying  the government had shifted its ground in arguing that the targets were planning attacks on major public events during the summer.

Labour leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn also said: “There has to be a legal basis for what’s going on. This is war without parliamentary approval. And, in fact, parliament specifically said no to this war in September 2013.”

Earlier, UK Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said London would not hesitate to carry out more secret drone attacks on British militants in Syria.

Back in 2013, UK government suffered a humiliating defeat in parliament when it failed to gain the approval of MPs for possible military action against Syria.


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