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Airstrikes

US led strikes in Syria killed 19 overnight, including 1 child

The UK will vote tomorrow on joining the strikes.

A SERIES OF US-led strikes in Syria overnight killed 14 jihadists from the Islamic State group and five civilians, including one child.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the militants were killed in strikes in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, and the civilians died in raids in northeastern Hasakeh.

The strikes largely targeted oil facilities captured by the Islamic State group (IS), though Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said at least one IS checkpoint was among the targets hit during the night.

On Wednesday, Pentagon officials announced that the US and Arab allies had resumed bombing raids that began a day earlier, hitting oil facilities held by IS.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told CNN that the raids focused on 12 targets he described as “modular oil refineries”.

IS militants have seized a series of oil facilities and fields and are believed to sell oil on the black market to bring in revenue.

The overnight strikes involved aircraft from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, members of the US-led coalition, Pentagon officials said.

Obama Syria Airstrikes Obama speaks during his meeting with the representatives of Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates - the five Arab nations who participated in strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria. AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

UK vote on joining strikes 

Britain’s former prime minister and Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair said on Monday that sending British ground troops to fight the Islamic State (IS) group should not be ruled out.

Blair, who sent British forces to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said he knew “as well as anyone” the difficulties of any such move but insisted it should not be discounted.

The current Prime Minister, David Cameron, said the British parliament will hold an extraordinary session tomorrow to vote on joining the strikes.

He said he was “confident” the House of Commons would approve the action requested by Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi during a meeting between the two leaders at the UN General Assembly in New York.

“There is a direct threat to Britain. There is now a comprehensive strategy in place to defeat them,” he told Sky News from the UN General Assembly.

What we are doing is legal, it is right, it does not involve British combat troops on the ground but as ever with our country when we are threatened in this way we should not turn away from what needs to be done.

Cameron was last year defeated in the House of Commons over military action in Syria.

Read: US and five Arab countries begin airstrikes on Islamic State in Syria>

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