FREE now and never miss the top politics stories again. SUBSCRIBE Invalid email Sign up fornow and never miss the top politics stories again. We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.

In the past fortnight RAF Typhoons and Tornados flying from Cyprus and RAF Reaper drones launched from Kuwait have destroyed targets including a jihadi convoy, a truck bomb factory and mortar teams fighting local force backed by the Coalition. Several raids have been carried out on ISIS or Daesh in Dayr az Zawr in eastern Syria, down the river Euphrates from the terror group’s HQ in Raqqa. Many of the raids have been carried out by warplanes built at BAE Systems plants which learned they are facing huge job cuts. The raids are part of a round the clock air offensive being maintained by the US-led multi-national Coalition.

Earlier this summer the Coalition’s then deputy commander, British Major General Rupert Jones, said ISIS forces are being killed by local ground forces and air strikes “at a rate it cannot sustain”. And last month Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said that in the past three years the RAF has carried out more than 1,500 air strikes against ISIS and killed more than 3,000 extremists. In the summer ISIS was driven out of Iraq’s second city, Mosul, and is thought to have a dwindling presence in there rest of Iraq while Raqqa is all but surrounded by Syrian fighters and is being pounded day and night by warplanes. The latest raids included a strike on a convoy of terrorists near Ramadi in Iraq, which has seen heavy fighting on and off since the US-led invasion in 2003.

GETTY RAF Typhoons and Tornados flying from Cyprus attacked key terror targets

An MoD spokesman said: “On Wednesday 27 September, a Reaper continued operations north-east of Dayr az Zawr, where it used a pair of Hellfires against a dispersed group of terrorists armed with rocket-propelled grenades. “In Iraq, Tornados and Typhoons responded to reports of Daesh activity several miles south-east of Ramadi. “Two groups of terrorists on foot were hit with Paveway IVs, as was a further group manning a trench. “A convoy of trucks carrying a large number of terrorists had also been spotted, and our aircraft tracked down and attacked five of these vehicles using a combination of Paveways and Brimstone missiles.”

GETTY RAF Tornados were among the warplanes taking part to the attack

Other attacks included a raid by Tornados on a truck-bomb factory in western Iraq while on Wednesday last week Typhoons supported Iraqi forces which liberated the town of Hawijah. They destroyed a Daesh mortar team and truck-bomb, while Tornados destroyed another truck-bomb near Bayji on the river Tigris. Among the targets hit in Dayr az Zawr were ISIS fighters, buildings being used as fortresses and snipers. On October 4 RAF Typhoons took out a series of buildings held by ISIS near the Syrian border with Iraq.