United Kingdom votes to join air strikes

London/ Baghdad/ New York/ Damascus: British lawmakers on Friday voted overwhelmingly to join anti-jihadist air strikes in Iraq as US-led raids in Syria disrupted the Islamic State group’s oil-pumping operations.However, IS fighters tightened their siege of the strategic town of Kobani on Syria’s border with Turkey on Friday, pushing back Kurdish forces and sending at least two shells into Turkish territory, even as more Western countries agreed to join fight against the extremist group. Belgium and Denmark have joined the US-led coalition will send six and seven F-16 fighter planes respectively to take part in the air strikes.

The House of Commons voted by a majority of 524 to 43 after the main political parties all approved military action saying that “lessons from the past” of the 2003 Iraq war had been learned.“This is not a threat on the far side of the world. Left unchecked, we will face a terrorist caliphate on the shores of the Mediterranean,” Prime Minister David Cameron said ahead of the vote.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s Prime Minister said that captured Islamic State militants have told Iraqi intelligence agents of an alleged plot to attack subways in the United States and Paris, but French and American officials said they had no such information. However, the FBI said that authorities believe the IS will try to stage an attack in US in reprisal for the air strikes.

Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov also confirmed that Russia is ready to support Iraq in its efforts to fight the terrorists. Mr Lavrov had a meeting with Iraq’s PM Haider al-Abadi

Regarding the planned terrorist attacks, Mr Abadi said it was the work of foreign fighters who had joined IS.

On Friday, Hundreds of unarmed protesters broke through a barbed wire fence and rushed towards Kobani in a bid to help defend the town. Air strikes have targeted IS elsewhere in Syria but some Kurdish military officials have said they have made the situation in Kobani more precarious.