23/09/2014 BBC World News

The United States and its Arab allies have launched the first air

and missile strikes against Islamic State targets inside Syria.

The militants' stronghold of Raqqa was hit, along with other targets

which the Pentagon says aimed to disrupt an "imminent attack"

Within the last hour, Syria says it received advance warning of the

attacks, in the form of a letter from the US Secretary of State.

Jordan has confirmed to the BBC that their planes took part

Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab

The US has launched a series of air and missile strikes

against Islamic State targets in Syria with the active

A Jordanian government spokesman has confirmed that it's been involved

in the attacks, saying it was necessary to ensure the stability

Other Arab nations involved in the US-led operations include

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The targets hit included the eastern city of Deir Ezzor

and the city of Raqqa, where Islamic State has its headquarters.

The US Central command said it launched the strikes from warships

in international waters in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.

The targets included Islamic State training compounds,

The first amateur footage from the aftermath of the airstrikes

This was taken overnight in the province of Idlib -

people showing what they believe to be remains of a missile.

And this is the sort of scene that people there have been

We had this statement a couple of hours ago from the US military,

giving us quite a few details about this operation. Yes, talking about

two different aspects of the attack. First of all saying that 14 strikes

were carried out by US planes and war ships, together with five Arab

allies who participated in the air strikes and helps to support them.

These were against Islamic State target as you mentioned, including

Islamic State fighters, storage sites, command and control centres,

vehicles, and that these were destroyed and damaged in the

strikes. The statement also said that the campaign in Syria and Iraq

would continue. Secondly, the statement talked about a separate

strike carried out just by US forces against a group of Al-Qaeda

militants, a network of Al-Qaeda veterans, it said, that was using

Syria as a base to plot imminent attacks against Western interests,

against the United States. This group was recruiting Westerners to

carry out these attacks and was experimenting with explosives, and

using this ungoverned space to have an international, global jihadi

agenda. The US attacked those separately from the other strikes

against Islamic State. In terms of the legality, one suspect there will

be a lot of arguments about that. John Kerry has been talking about

the right of hot pursuit. What about the political reaction that will

unfold now across America? The US has almost switched sides, hasn't

it? We are hearing that a letter was delivered to the Syrian government

warning them of these strikes. Yes, the Americans have said all along

that they do not want to cooperate with the Syrian government in the

fight against Islamic State because they consider it to be beyond the

pale, it has lost legitimacy because of the violence it has carried out

against its own citizens during the Civil War, but at the same time,

Washington does not want a conflict with the Syrian government over this

campaign. According to a government statement in Damascus, John Kerry

did send a letter to the Syrians via an intermediary telling them that

the strikes would take place. The Syrians received a few hours

warning. It was mentioned that they supported any international effort

against Islamic extremists on their territory and that they were

coordinating closely with Baghdad. That suggests that they are not

going to raise a great deal of fuss when this issue is brought, not only

to the United States, but in particular to the UN because

President Obama is heading to the UN for the General Assembly, during

which time he will explain his campaign and the bubbly explained

the legal reasoning behind it. He will put forward the fact that he

has support from the region. These five nations that have supported

America. He will also get opposition. The Russians have said

it is not good enough just to notify the sovereign state that you are

going to carry out attacks might you have to get consent. You have to

operate within the bounds of international law. You can see where

this debate is going to go at the United Nations over the last couple

of days. We will see what the US reaction is as America wakes up.

Stay with us through the early hours. We move now to Beirut and to

our correspondence that. Can you give us a sense of reaction there?

Officially, the government has not issued any reaction to what happened

overnight in Syria. I was talking this morning to some Syrian refugees

in Lebanon. Most of them were extremely sceptical about what

happened. They did not feel that this would make a big difference to

their day-to-day lives. This will get them back home. They were

sceptical that any solution to their suffering might come from the

Americans, or that Isis can be defeated by military means only.

This will be a split opinion, but is there a sense that air strikes would

be enough? We have had repeated refusals of the idea of sending in

ground troops. What about this Arab coalition in support? The way that

the Syrians see this is that Syria has become, for many, a proxy war

between different parties. The parties are divided. People are

divided as to whether these countries might be wanting some good

for Syria, or if they are only seeking their own interests. The

Syrians I spoke to were extremely lost as to how to assess what is

happening in their country, and whether this might lead to any

positive result to the situation over there. Would you say that

generally there is still a huge suspicion of any US intervention in

the region, because resident Obama has been reluctant to go in, fearful

of reprise of, fearful of this hostile reaction. This is what the

Syrians have been telling me. They are not very optimistic about this

intervention. They have been telling me about an ulterior motive behind

this military action in Syria. They asked me why now? They have been

asking for assistance for years and it did not come. Why now? Why has

resident Obama decided to interfere at this point? Is it for the good of

Syria itself, or is it going to make things worse? Many thanks.

Syria's Foreign Minister says it had been given prior notice of the

strikes from the United States. This is how it was confirmed on Syrian

state television a short while ago. TRANSLATION: Yesterday, the Foreign

Minister received a letter from his American counterpart John Kerry via

the Iraqi Foreign Minister in which he informed him that the United

States would target a terrorist group in Syria. The military said

that Syria would continue to attack ISIS in Raqqa and other areas mezzo

coordination with the most and directly affected countries would

include a rock. -- Iraq. As we have found with military

forces, aeroplanes have tried to find the positions of ISIS within

the Syrian borders, and we have taken action in light of continuous

attempts to attack our borders. We need to stop them attacking our

borders. We will continue with this effort. We will continue with

whatever steps are necessary in order to target the positions of the

terrorist organisation ISIS. Can you tell me exactly what aircraft are

being used by Jordan, and how many aircraft are being used? All

military details will be given at the appropriate time, and military

officials will announce them at the appropriate time. Our aeroplanes are

targeting the positions of ISIS. We will not talk about any military

details at this point. We release information as we see fit. That was

a Jordanian government spokesman telling me a bit about their role in

this assault. We can show you the latest pictures released by the

Pentagon. This is an image of the missiles being launched by the U.S.

Navy. To carry out these strikes, we know that the US has employed 47

Tomahawk missiles launched from the US ships operating in international

waters. Missiles are also being launched by the US air force,

remotely piloted aircraft. These images from the US military as you

can see, show the very first pictures of the air strikes launched

on Syria. Not only by the US, but with military support and political

backing from Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab

Emirates. I am joined now by associate fellow

at the Royal United services Institute. This is a formidable

alliance. How surprising is it that the US has been calling for the

support of these Arab nations, but we have also got potential

cooperation with Orion and previous foes now coming on board to tackle

IES is remarked it is a huge coup that the United States has rallied a

whole host of Sunni allies to counter ISIS. In 2007, having the

Sunni alliance was essential in the insurgency strategy. The Sunni on

the ground felt reassured that US presence would be maintained to

undermine and counter Al-Qaeda. Today, it is important that we

maintain that support of the Sunni people, and the Iranians membership

of the alliance could perhaps undermined that support. We saw a

statement yesterday saying that the Saudi and Iranians, there has been

some sort of discussion, and also, what about the actual role of these

Arab Sunni states question what do we know exactly what they are doing?

Currently, we do not know exactly the role that these Arab countries

have forged for themselves, but we need to understand that these Arab

states are increasingly willing to take the initiative. Just the other

month, the United Arab Emirates took initiative in Libya. The very fact

that America had not been so involved in the region, had to a

degree withdrawn from the region, that demonstrated an increasing

willingness on the part of Gulf states to intervene. But are the

Gulf states fairly accused of facing at least two directions at the same

time because there have been a lot of speculative reports that

individuals within countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia are funding

and supporting, and Turkey of course supporting Islamic State for their

own political cause, and now they are involved in this alliance. You

are right, and I think that as part of this alliance, the United States

is going to have to calibrate its approach, and coordinate closely

with Gulf allies in order that they won't play aged visitors roll on one

hand to counter the ISIS fighters on the ground, and on the other hand to

allow individuals from those regimes to fund them. What does it say

actually, that we see this huge apparent coalition, even a statement

from Russia yesterday saying they might cooperate in some way? What

does it say about the perceived threat of Jihad is to groups like

Islamic State? It is clearly targeting Gulf regimes. They want to

undermine Gulf monarchies. They perceive them as illegitimate. When

you look at the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, they share it

exactly the same strategic interests as the United States. The problem

that the US has is it is only beginning to formulate a strategy in

that it is targeting ISIS members in Iraq and Syria, and it is key that

it targets Syria because two thirds of ISIS fighters are based in Syria.

We seen the missile strikes, we know that we will see images of civilian

casualties, sadly. When pictures of children and women, who are

innocently killed, come in in Muslim countries on the television sets,

how will those countries still maintain support for this military

attack? These all states are going to have to appreciate the fact that

war is tragic, and you do have collateral damage, you do have

civilian casualties, and that is part of war, and it is tragic. The

choice that they face is to avoid that and in turn to allow ISIS to

spread its tentacles and effectively target golf regimes. The spread that

ISIS has had over the past couple of months has been exponential due to

their funding capability. It is not only the wealthy Gulf individuals

funding ISIS, you have... Why haven't Saudi and tata been worried

about the threats to their instability at the beginning? They

have been worried, but they wanted American leadership. The real

question is why did it take America so long to actually Upshaw

pro-Western moderates and Syrian opposition numbers, why did it

allowed to funding to go to the radical ones, allowing them to be a

more appealing alternative for Islamist? The problem America has is

that it does not have a rollback strategy for ISIS. It is targeting

them using air power alone. What is to say that ISIS cannot regain the

initiative, or the Assad regime cannot regain the initiative? What

comes afterwards, yes. You need to have greater ground troops to

achieve that. There are so many questions about how long this plays

out for. Many thanks indeed. There is much more at our website,

you have got all of the latest developments plus the background and

analysis, it is an incredibly complex picture, of course. Also the

latest video that we get into the newsroom which we have put online

for you. And you can the discussion, these do, and it become news and

information please share that with us.

Stay with us at BBC world News. Much more to come. We will look at some

other stories, is school with no classes or students, we will hear

how this school along with many in Pakistan came to house hundreds of

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the climate will be very hard. There's plenty more on climate

change on the BBC News website. Find out how it's affecting

your part of the world and read the latest blogs from our science

and environment correspondents. You'll find all that

at BBC.com/news. The top stories: The United States

and its Arab allies have launched air and missile strikes for the

first time against Islamic State militants in Syria.

A stronghold was hit, along with other targets which the Pentagon

says aim to disrupt an imminent attack against Western interests.

France's foreign minister Laurent Fabius has confirmed that

one of its citizens, Herve Gourdel, has been kidnapped in Algeria.

Mr Fabius said a video on the internet was genuine,

and that the Islamic State was behind it.

The kidnappers are demanding that France ends its attacks

The BBC's Lucy Williamson gave us more details on the kidnapping.

We think that it happened on Sunday. The kidnappers released a

video, as you mentioned, on Monday, and in it the hostage, Mr Gourdel,

appears to put forward the kidnappers' demands that France

should stop its involvement in the campaign against Islamic State.

France has said it has started to carry out air strikes against the

group in Iraq, although it said it won't send ground troops and won't

get involved in Syria. It has a gun air strikes in Iraq and that is

seemingly what has prompted this threat from the kidnappers.

The French government line is that there will be no negotiation, no

handing any kind of victory to Islamic State, but of course there

has been lots of discussion in recent weeks about which countries

do negotiate to try and rescue those who are taken hostage.

That's right, and there is a lot of pressure, a lot of reports here

saying the kidnappers are giving different government 24 hours before

they carry out their threats to kill the hostage. The French Prime

Minister has told a French radio station that the French government

will have no discussion, no negotiation with the kidnappers. We

don't give in to blackmail, you said, if you give them an inch you

hand them victory. That has been the government line for a long time,

there has been speculation that the countries or proxies perhaps get

involved and help to secure the release of some hostages in the

past, but the details of that are not completely clear and certainly

the French government has always held to its line that it does not

pay Branson is, it does not engage in prisoner exchanges. -- it does

not pay ransoms. Israel says it has brought down a

Syrian jet over the Golan Heights. Syria calls it an aggressive move.

The Israeli army says it has killed two Palestinians suspected

of involvement in the kidnapping and killing

The kidnapping triggered an escalation of tensions with Hamas,

culminating in the Gaza conflict, in which more than 2,200 people

An Israeli army spokesman says the men were killed in an exchange

of fire with Israeli special forces in Hebron, in the West Bank.

Hong Kong's students have taken their protests to the government in

the centre of the city, they are protesting against plans to vet

candidates for the next election in 2015. Scuffles broke out as students

ran towards the chief executive as the game out of a government

building. Weeks after the start of the term

in Pakistan, many state schools in the capital Islamabad are still

closed, leaving thousands Many of the schools have been take

over by police drafted in to deal And that's bad news for students

and teachers. Our Pakistan correspondent

Shaimaa Khalil went to one school Armed police at the entrance of the

school. Not an everyday sight, even for Islamabad. Instead of students

coming for the lessons every day, this school is now home to thousands

of officers. They have been bussed in from hundreds of miles away. The

courtyard where the children would normally have their assemblies is

now used to drive the washing. TRANSLATION: The headmistress shows

me around. Having more than a thousand policeman here has taken

its toll on both the school and the students. I should not say angry,

but I am desperate. I just want to open my school as normal. I wanted

to open and the students to come. I want them to leave as soon as

possible. I want them to leave as soon as possible. If they have to

stay in as lamb are bad, they should find some other... They should leave

the school 's -- if they have to stay in Islamabad. After a long

shift on the streets, it is downtime for these men. Many have spent weeks

away from home and want the protests to be over so they can return to

their families. We are in a school auditorium, where children would

normally come for school concerts and plays, but instead you can see I

am surrounded by off-duty policeman. This has been turned into a

makeshift living quarters for them. They sleep here, the ET, and they

always have their riot gear next to them, ready for action. Look called

-- a local journalist has come to pay school fees for lessons his

daughter hasn't received. You can imagine for the last five to six

weeks this college, not only this college, there are about 40 colleges

and schools that have enclosed. Are you angry? Yes, I'm angry. I'm angry

at the present government. It is the incompetence of the present

government. They have put at stake the future of the children. For a

country with some of the worst education rates in the world,

Pakistan can't afford for any of its schools to be shut for long.

Let me remind you of our top story and show you the latest pictures we

have had here: These are the missile strikes from the US, launched from

two carriers in the red Sea in the North Arabian Gulf, supported by

Bahrain, Saudi, Qatari, and the UAE. These are the pictures of the

aftermath of one of those strikes in Syria.

This is BBC Well, BBC iWonder

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