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This is how Britain's government tries to win support on bombing ISIS - with birdseye air strike footage

Lianna Brinded   

This is how Britain's government tries to win support on bombing ISIS -  with birdseye air strike footage
Politics3 min read

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YouTube/defenceheadquarters

A video still from one of the UK government's RAF footage videos.

Britain's government voted to support the country joining the US and other forces in bombing ISIS (also know as ISIL, the Islamic State, and Daesh) in Syria this week but the public are still very fractured over the military action.

However, there is a key way in which the the Conservative-led government drives more support from those that are opposed to the air strikes - consistently show a series of birdseye view video footage on its website and social media.

This not only creates transparency and greater trust over the government's military action overseas but it also shows how precise its technology is in focusing and destroying its targets while also mitigating civilian casualties.

Here is an example from one of the Ministry of Defence's videos:

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YouTube/defenceheadquarters

At 10.30 p.m. on Wednesday December 2, British politicians voted yes to joining the US and other nations in a bombing campaign against ISIS in Syria. 397 were in favour of the bombing while 223 were against it. The result came after 10.5 hours' worth of parliamentary debates.

Meanwhile, the latest YouGov poll shows that 48% of Britons approve air strikes, 31% disapprove, while the rest remained undecided as of December 1. After the results of the vote were announced, thousands of "Stop the War" protestors gathered outside parliament and even held a minute of silence when it was confirmed that the air strikes would go ahead.

One of the biggest criticisms and reasons for why people oppose the bombing campaigns is due to the risk of civilian casualities.

On December 2, Prime Minister David Cameron told politicians "in Iraq for a year and three months, there were no reports of civilian casualties that resulted from Britain's air strikes. Our aim is to avoid civilian casualities altogether. With our weapons precision and skilled forces, [air strikes] can be effective in prosecuting campaign against ISIL."

However, critics including the former leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) Alex Salmond said anyone who thinks an air strike would not cause civilian casualities "is living on a different planet."

So the government releases a raft of real birdseye video footage showing how Britain's RAF focuses on targets and precisely and blows up very specific trucks and buildings - therefore mitigating the risk to civilians.

Here's an example:

Britain's Ministry of Defence confirmed today that the country completed its second air strike on ISIS

The MoD said four RAF planes targeted ISIS-controlled oil fields in a bid to complete Western forces' long-term plans to hinder the terrorist group's future attacks by destroying its main source of funding - oil.

The MoD released a lengthy statement on the government's website to detail how Tornado GR4s and Typhoon FGR4s, as well as unmanned Reapers, based at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus conducted a series of attacks on an ISIS-controlled oil field in Omar, eastern Syria on Friday night.

Alongside its statement, it released a raft of these videos to show how the RAF conducts its missions and how specific the weapons are in destroying its targets.

You can see a range of the government-released videos here.

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