The Sun

The slaughter of another American journalist, and the threat to behead a Briton next, may not change the Government’s timid reluctance to use force to destroy the Islamic State.

No one, after all, needed more confirmation of their medieval savagery.

But perhaps the plea from Kurdistan to David Cameron in The Sun today will be more persuasive.

The Prime Minister wants to limit our involvement in Iraq to humanitarian aid and supporting US air strikes with surveillance.

Yet at the same time he has increased our national terror threat to “severe” and warned we are all in grave danger from these brainwashed cut-throats.

His new measures to seize suspects’ passports and restrict their movements can only do so much.

It will not be enough for our intelligence services to fend off the mass murderers and suicide bombers of IS one by one on Britain’s streets.

With hundreds already on the loose and many more flocking to join the jihad in Iraq and Syria, we must cut this evil out at its root.

Yes, that means stopping extremists indoctrinating young Muslims in Britain — in mosques and meeting halls or on the web.

We believe it also means using British force on the battlefield.

Kurdistan’s UK representative Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman makes a convincing case for our warplanes bombing IS to kingdom come.

As well as for us to supply Kurdish forces with advanced weapons to take the maniacs out.

Short of sending in British troops, the Kurds, backed by our technology and firepower, are our best bet.

We must empower them to destroy this psychotic cult for the good of the Middle East and Britain.



The Sun - Opinions

Kurds need help now - don't wait until a Brit is killed

By BAYAN SAMI ABDUL RAHMAN, Kurdistan Regional Government High Representative to the UK

Iraq's Kurds face a truly barbarous enemy. Islamic State showed the depths of their depravity yet again yesterday with Steven Sotloff’s beheading, and the threat they made against another British hostage.

They behead our brave peshmerga fighters too when they capture them. And they also would not hesitate to open the Mosul Dam and kill half a million people if they could.

As a Kurd who has lived in Britain here much of my life, I am very aware that the British people have become deeply sceptical about intervention and emotional appeals for action. But there are also cold and hard reasons for Britain to support the Peshmerga and to stop the genocide against the Yazidis, Christians, Turkmen and other minorities.

First, the Islamic State poses a direct security threat to the UK which will grow unless confronted. IS has radicalised thousands of young Muslims such that they commit savage acts without a second thought. They're likely to dispatch jihadis to attack their home countries and a defacto state would provide a base from which to plan international acts of terror. This threat cannot be contained; it must be rooted out where it festers.

Some argue that the west provokes terrorists by intervening in the Middle East and use this as a reason for inaction now. But inaction in Syria when there was a window to act is partly responsible for IS’s rise in Iraq. If you seek to simply contain IS it will be a tragedy for us, but it would be doubly tragic if it takes the deaths of Britons on your own streets to prompt action.

Second, it's in Britain’s long-term strategic interest. We are your natural allies in a dangerous region. The 1991 No-Fly-Zone policed by British and US warplanes, enabled us to build the Kurdistan Region into a prosperous, fledgling democracy, which has been a magnet for British and other foreign investment and has seen us develop an oil and gas sector from scratch over the past eight years.

We are pro-Western, outward-looking, and our protection of minorities reflects our culture's deep set respect for all faiths and nationalities. Bolstering us now against IS and helping ensure our long-term security against other oppressors helps extend British influence in a troubled but geopolitically important region. Allowing Kurdistan’s beacon of progress to be snuffed out by a rampaging cult-like terrorist group would be a powerful symbol of the decline in British power and influence.

Third, Britain remains a great power, and with this comes great responsibilities. As with France, you are one of the EU and Nato's leading military powers capable of deploying military force backed up by your unrivalled diplomatic networks. Aside from moral responsibility, and irrespective of the wish of many to resile from a global role, as a Permanent Member of the Security Council you have a “responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security”.

This is aside from your responsibility as a signatory of the UN Genocide Convention to “protect and punish”. We have been one of the few bastions against a terrorist organisation whose existence represents the very antithesis of “peace and security”. To allow such an affront to international law and morality to stand will weaken the international system, whose maintenance even mighty nations ultimately rely on.

How can Britain help? First, we need urgent humanitarian assitance. Kurdistan has been flooded with 850,000 refugees fleeing IS this year alone. That's in addition to the 551,000 refugees from Syria and other parts of Iraq that came to us before 2014.

That's the equivalent of Scotland -- which like us has a population of about 5million - taking in 1.4million refugees.

This is beyond our capability alone and we need Britain to help, not just with airdrops of aid but also with running refugee camps, dealing with the vast numbers of people who need sanitation, healthcare and education for their children.

We also need Britain to provide heavy and advanced arms to our peshmerga who are fighting IS with light weapons. Even some basic non-lethal equipment is needed, such as night-vision and body armour.

We are not asking for British soldiers to be sent into the line of fire. The peshmerga are fighting IS on the ground will continue to do that, but they need support through airstrikes, logistics, advanced and heavy weapons, and the sharing of intelligence.

Help us and you help yourselves. Any other course risks throwing the Kurdistan Region into the abyss, along with much else besides.