British fighter jets fly over Iraq, gather intelligence
RAF AKROTIRI - Two British fighter jets flew over Iraq on Saturday on their first mission since the UK parliament authorized bombing missions against Islamic State militants, but they did not carry out any air strikes, the Ministry of Defense (MOD) said.
The Tornado jets left the British Royal Air Force's Akrotiri base in Cyprus at 7:25am GMT and returned more than seven hours later, a Reuters witness said.
"Although on this occasion no targets were identified as requiring immediate air attack by our aircraft, the intelligence gathered by the Tornados' highly sophisticated surveillance equipment will be invaluable," the MOD said.
