Typhoon jets supported the Syrian Democratic Forces attacking Islamic State in Baghuz Fawqani, striking dispersed terrorist positions, and destroying a large truck-bomb.

On Tuesday the 12th March, the Ministry of Defence say that the SDF came into contact with Islamic State in dispersed positions, and two Typhoon FGR4s conducted a series of three attacks, using a total of four Paveway IV guided bombs, which successfully silenced the terrorists’ fire.

In addition, a large number of vehicles had been abandoned in the area of the fighting, and one large truck in their midst was identified as booby-trapped with an improvised explosive device.

The Typhoons were able to pick out and safely destroy this truck-bomb with a single Brimstone 2 missile, say the MoD.

Background on Operation Shader

This section is intended to provide a bit of background on British efforts in the region and if you’ve read it before, please remember others may not have.

By September last year, the Ministry of Defence had announced that over 1,000 personnel were engaged in theatre and that the Royal Air Force had conducted around 1,000 airstrikes, flying over 2,800 sorties, killing over 3,000 Islamic State fighters.

Last year, it was reported that the Royal Air Force was operating at its most intense for 25 years in a single theatre of operation which far outstripped the UK involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan – RAF jets have dropped 11 times more bombs (1,276 strikes) on Syria and Iraq in the preceding 12 months than they had in the busiest year of action in Afghanistan a decade previously.