Oral Answers to Questions

Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh Excerpts

Monday 13th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[Wendy Morton (Aldridge-Brownhills) (Con)]

7. What recent assessment he has made of progress in the international campaign to tackle Daesh.

[Ms Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh (Ochil and South Perthshire) (SNP)]

14. What recent progress has been made on the international campaign against Daesh.

[David Mackintosh (Northampton South) (Con)]

18. What recent assessment he has made of progress in the international campaign to tackle Daesh.

--- Later in debate ---

[Sir Michael Fallon]

Yes, we need to keep up the pressure on both. With coalition help, Syrian Democratic Forces are making good progress in operations to isolate Raqqa. Senior coalition officers, including some from the UK, are now working on how the coalition might best support the liberation of Raqqa. They are visiting coalition sites in northern Syria as needed to co-ordinate coalition support and to engage partner forces.

[Ms Ahmed-Sheikh]

There have been recent reports from Iraq of mass graves being uncovered in territory formerly held by Daesh, including the discovery of 4,000 bodies at al-Khasfa, near Mosul. What support is the Ministry of Defence offering the Iraqi Government to ensure that the foul perpetrators are brought to justice swiftly?

[Sir Michael Fallon]

Yes, in the counter-Daesh coalition we are working to see how we can accumulate the evidence so that those from Daesh who may have committed the most heinous of crimes can properly be brought to justice, either in Iraq or, indeed, elsewhere.