London, September 8 (RHC)-- UK Prime Minister David Cameron has revealed that British forces have killed three Daesh terrorists, including two young Britons, in the northern Syrian city of Raqqah in a drone airstrike.
Speaking before the British parliament on Monday, Cameron further elaborated that the prime target of the drone attack by the Royal Air Force was 21-year-old Reyaad Khan from the city of Cardiff, but the August 21st airstrike also killed two other Daesh terrorists, including another British citizen identified as 26-year-old Ruhul Amin.
The British prime minister also said during his address that the drone attack was legally justified, adding that those killed were plotting deadly attacks against the UK and that they could not be eliminated by any other means.
"There was a terrorist directing murder on our streets and no other means to stop them," Cameron stated, insisting that the decision to launch the lethal airstrike had not been taken lightly and that it reflected the UK’s intrinsic right to self-defense.
He said Britain took action after determining that Khan, who had appeared in a Daesh recruiting video in 2014, and another terrorist identified as Junaid Hussain were "British nationals based in Syria who were involved in actively recruiting ISIL (Daesh) sympathizers and seeking to orchestrate specific and barbaric attacks against the West.”
Cameron added that the British nationals intended to direct "a number of planned terrorist attacks right here in Britain, such as plots to attack high profile public commemorations, including those taking place this summer."
Cameron added that Hussain, the other Briton, had been killed in a U.S. drone strike three days after the UK drone attack. The British prime minister said that the parliament was not consulted in advance of the drone strike, because his government reserves the right to take future action without prior approval when there is a "critical" British interest at stake or when a "humanitarian catastrophe" is imminent and can be averted.
