UK 'letting down' allies over IS in Syria

The head of Britain's armed forces on Sunday said the country was "letting down" allies by not participating in air strikes against Islamic State group jihadists in Syria.

Britain is part of a coalition hitting IS targets in Iraq, but its parliament has yet to be convinced of the need to join air strikes in neighbouring Syria and an influential committee of MPs recently advised against action.

"To an extent yes, we are letting our allies down by not being a full player," General Nicholas Houghton, the chief of the defence staff, told Sky News on Sunday.

"The source of their power, their command and control, their logistics, their organisation, the place from which they issue orders to international terrorists is from within Syria.

"In the most simplistic way it's like being asked to win a football match but not being able to go into the opponents' half," he added.

However, the defence chief stressed that Britain could make only "make a contribution to the international" effort.

"In the end the military dimension is done by regional platers, by Muslim countries," he later told the BBC.

"I don't think we should play the decisive military role because it runs the risk of adding fuel to the radicalisation of IS as an abhorrent cult."

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond later denied that the government had given up on a parliamentary vote.

"We are in exactly the same place that we've been for months," he told the BBC.

"When we think its right to do so, when we think we have a consensus, we will go to the House of Commons."

Hammond said the government was still in an "exploration" period with the opposition Labour party, which recently elected leftist Jeremy Corbyn as its leader, and was yet to establish if it had the cross-party support required to win a vote to extend the air strikes.

He admitted that Britain's decision "wasn't going to tip the balance" in Syria and called for a political solution to bring about a ceasefire in the four-year civil war.

Caption: Representative Image

Photo: BBC