Counter-Daesh Update — House of Commons, 2019-02-11
Topic: Defense
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (Conservative, Centre-right): Mr Speaker, with permission, I will update the House on the campaign against Daesh, one of the most brutal and depraved terrorist organisations the world has ever seen. Since Daesh’s reign of terror started, investigators from the United Nations have discovered more than 200 mass graves in areas of Iraq once held by the terrorists, containing between 6,000 and 12,000 corpses. The UN has concluded that Daesh’s onslaught against the Yazidi minority in northern Iraq amounted to the crime of genocide, as testimony from remarkably brave individuals, such as the Nobel peace prize winner Nadia Murad, makes clear Daesh once imposed its rule of terror on an area roughly the size of the United Kingdom, but has now been driven back to an isolated enclave in eastern Syria. However, the House should not mistake territorial defeat for final defeat. Military action by many nations, including the UK, has broken Daesh’s grip on thousands of square miles of Syria and Iraq—and we can draw encouragement from that success, at the same time as we salute the extraordinary courage of the coalition of armed forces that made it possible—yet as we drive Daesh out of territorial strongholds we are seeing its operatives turning to guerrilla tactics and forming more conventional terrorist networks. So we must press on with the military campaign, even as we employ every diplomatic and humanitarian lever to address the conditions that led to the birth of Daesh in the first place Today, I will outline the measures that Britain is taking to guard against the re-emergence of Daesh in the middle east and to protect our people at home. I turn first to the current situation. The Syrian Democratic Forces have cleared Daesh from large areas of the Euphrates valley, expelling its fighters from significant population centres and confining them to a small area near the frontier with Iraq. Their action, alongside the armed forces of all the countries from the global coalition, has liberated millions from tyranny. Of course we take particular pride in the courage and professionalism of the men and women of the British armed services, and the whole House will want to congratulate Flight Lieutenant Thomas Hansford, a Typhoon pilot from 1 Squadron, who was decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross in November after destroying four Daesh truck bombs during a single mission over Syria On 19 December, President Trump announced the impending withdrawal of American troops from eastern Syria, where about 2,000 US personnel have been deployed. Contrary to what many anticipated at the time, there has been no hasty or precipitate departure. As the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, confirmed to me when I met him in Washington last month, the US Administration recognise the importance of conducting the withdrawal in a way that allows the immense progress achieved against Daesh in Syria to be maintained. We must also do everything within our power to address the conditions that allowed the rise of Daesh, to which I now turn The central requirement is for political progress in Iraq and Syria. The new Iraqi Government, under President Salih and Prime Minister Abdul Mahdi, are seized of the importance of winning the peace through democratic politics and economic reform, and the UK will do everything possible to help them. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister visited Iraq in November 2017 and proposed an enduring security partnership. My right hon. Friends the Secretary of State for Defence and the Minister for the Armed Forces have since visited Iraq to take forward that pledge, and in January my right hon. Friend the Minister for the Middle East visited Baghdad, where he met the President and the Prime Minister and announced a new £30 million funding package. The UK has helped to train nearly 90,000 members of the Iraqi security forces. We will press ahead with this essential work, including at the re-established military academy In Syria, the civil war that gave Daesh its great opportunity has been raging for almost eight years. The House knows the history of this terrible conflict. From the beginning, we have done our best to promote a political settlement, but our efforts have collided with Assad’s determination to subjugate his country at whatever cost and by the most brutal methods. We will continue to work to advance a peaceful settlement. In the meantime, we have mounted our largest ever response to a single humanitarian crisis. The Government have committed more than £2.7 billion of humanitarian aid to the Syrian crisis, providing more than 27 million food rations and 10 million vaccines since 2012. Now that Daesh has been cleared from large areas of Syria, there is an urgent need for humanitarian assistance in those regions. On behalf of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Development, I can announce that UK Aid has provided another £20 million of help for areas of Syria recaptured from Daesh, including Raqqa, bringing the total to more than £40 million in this financial year The Government continue to believe that Daesh poses the single greatest terrorist threat to this country, so finally I turn to the measures that we are taking to keep our people safe here in the UK. We are using a range of tools to reduce the threat posed by fighters returning from Iraq and Syria. Those who do come back to the UK should expect to face investigation and, where appropriate, prosecution. Those fighters detained by partner forces in the region must also expect to be brought to justice for any offences, in accordance with due legal process, regardless of nationality In the internet age, Daesh has no need to control territory in order to spread poisonous propaganda. Supporters around the world increasingly produce their own propaganda, as well as sharing content from the terrorist group’s outlets. The Foreign Office hosts the global coalition’s strategic communications cell, which works with international partners to counter Daesh’s propaganda. The Government have also mounted extensive cyber operations to destroy Daesh’s online capabilities When Britain joined the campaign against Daesh, we knew that we were embarking on a protracted struggle against a movement dedicated to medieval, obscurantist barbarism. Although we can take heart from the crushing territorial defeats meted out to Daesh, the struggle to combat its ideology will take much longer and is far from over. Until then, we must be vigilant, and the Government will continue to fulfil their first duty by doing whatever is necessary to protect the British people. I commend this statement to the House.