British warplanes carried out airstrikes in Syria early Thursday, hours after Parliament voted to authorize air attacks against Islamic State group targets there.
Four Royal Air Force Tornados took off from a British air base in Akrotiri, Cyprus, shortly after the 397-223 vote by lawmakers in the House of Commons.
A Ministry of Defense spokesman told The Associated Press the planes had conducted strikes in Syria, and details about their targets would be provided later Thursday. The RAF has been launching strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq since 2014.
The decision to expand the campaign to Syria came after an emotional 10½-hour debate in which Prime Minister David Cameron said that Britain must strike the terrorists in their heartland and not “sit back and wait for them to attack us.”
