MoD Spending Reaches Nearly £800 Million In The Fight Against Islamic State

New figures given to parliament by the Ministry of Defence show how spending in the fight against Islamic State has snowballed, amounting to nearly £800 million over the last three years.

What are the costs involved?

The information was released in a written parliamentary answer from the Minister of State for Defence, Rt Hon Earl Howe. It reveals that the costs of battling Islamic State operations has risen massively in the past three years.

In the last financial year, it had reached just under £470 million, virtually double the £260 million in 2015/16.

In 2014 the figure was just under 50 million pounds.

Lord Howe said these are net additional costs that the MoD would not otherwise have incurred but for the operations.

The figures have emerged as the Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said Britain would continue striking terrorist targets until Islamic State had been driven out of Iraq and Syria.

What is the money actually being spent on?

According to the MoD the total cost includes: "Operational allowances, accommodation and feeding support for the thousands of personnel who have served on Operation Shader, as well as costs associated with air operations including fuel and precision guided munitions. "

Since October 2014, Britain has conducted over 1600 air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. U.K forces have trained 57,000 members of the Iraqi and Peshmerga security forces, as well as providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support to the coalition.

Separate MoD figures suggest that to the end of July, RAF strikes have killed an estimated 2,684 Islamic State militants in Iraq since 2014, with another 410 killed in Syria since 2015.

The UK is part of a global coalition fighting the terror group, with Britain's military contribution second only to the United States.