Operation Shader is the operational code name given to the contribution of the United Kingdom in its war against the Islamic State. The operation involved the British Army providing ground support and training to allied forces fighting against IS, the Royal Air Force providing humanitarian aid airdrops, reconnaissance and airstrikes, and the Royal Navy providing reconnaissance and airstrikes from the UK carrier strike group and escort to allied carrier battle groups. Additionally, British special forces had reportedly operated in Iraq, Syria, and Libya.
In January 2019, the Ministry of Defence stated that 1,700 British airstrikes so far had killed or injured 4,315 enemy fighters in Iraq and Syria, with one civilian casualty. The RAF had also delivered £230 million worth of humanitarian aid. Overall, the operation had resulted in a net cost of £1.75 billion. The number of airstrikes carried out in Iraq and Syria has been second only to the United States, with a report that the RAF has conducted 20 percent of all airstrikes. The operation became the most intense flying mission the RAF had undertaken in 25 years.
On 28 September 2024, the Ministry of Defence announced that the Global Coalition's military mission in Iraq would draw to a close over the following 12 months, with the UK moving towards an enduring bilateral security and defence partnership with Iraq. The UK continued Operation Shader during the transition, including RAF operations against Daesh in Syria. On 30 September 2026, the Global Coalition's military mission in Iraq concluded and coalition forces, including UK personnel, departed Iraq. The UK stated that Operation Shader would continue as part of its wider contribution to the defeat of Daesh, while UK-Iraqi security cooperation would continue through an enduring bilateral defence partnership.
Background
In 2014, the militant group Islamic State made vast territorial gains in Iraq and Syria following several offensives. It declared its captured territory a caliphate within which it enforced a strict interpretation of Sharia. The group, which is designated a terrorist organisation by the United Nations, received widespread condemnation for its human rights abuses and crimes against humanity. The Iraqi government formally requested the United States and wider international community to carry out airstrikes against ISIL in support of their fight on the ground. During the 2014 NATO summit in Wales, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pressed Ministers of Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey and the United Kingdom to support a coalition to combat ISIL militarily and financially. The United States launched the Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF–OIR) on 17 October with the stated aim of degrading and destroying ISIL.
Iraq
Humanitarian aid and surveillance
On 9 August 2014, following the genocide of Yazidis and other ethnic minorities by ISIL in northern Iraq, the British government deployed the Royal Air Force to conduct humanitarian aid airdrops. The first airdrop was conducted on 9 August, with two Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft, flying from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, airdropping bundles of aid into Mount Sinjar. A second airdrop on 12 August had to be aborted due to a perceived risk of injury to civilians. The airdrops were able to resume within 24 hours and two large consignments of aid were airdropped over Mount Sinjar. During the same day, the Ministry of Defence announced the deployment of Tornado GR4 strike aircraft to help coordinate the airdrops using their LITENING III reconnaissance pods; they were not authorized to conduct any airstrikes prior to Parliamentary approval. Four Chinook transport helicopters were also deployed alongside them to participate in any required refugee rescue missions. On 13 August 2014, two C-130 Hercules aircraft dropped a third round of humanitarian aid into Mount Sinjar. This was followed by a fourth and final round on 14 August, bringing the total number of humanitarian aid airdrops conducted by the RAF to seven. The UK suspended its humanitarian aid airdrops on 14 August 2014 due to the "improved humanitarian situation" in Mount Sinjar.
On 16 August 2014, following the suspension of humanitarian aid airdrops, the RAF began shifting its focus from humanitarian relief to surveillance. The Tornado GR4s, which were previously used to help coordinate humanitarian aid airdrops, were re-tasked to gather vital intelligence for anti-ISIL forces. A RC-135 Rivet Joint signals intelligence aircraft was also deployed on what was the type's first operational deployment since entering service. The aircraft was based at RAF Al Udeid in Qatar alongside American aircraft. In addition to Tornado and Rivet Joint, the RAF also deployed Reaper, Sentinel, Shadow and Sentry aircraft to fly surveillance missions over Iraq and Syria.
When asked whether the country would participate in airstrikes or send ground troops, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon stated: "We have not been asked to commit either combat troops on the ground – and we are not going to do that – and we have not been asked to join in other air strikes though we certainly welcome [them]".
Parliamentary approval
On 20 September 2014, Iraq presented a letter to the UN Security Council (of which the United Kingdom is a permanent member) calling for military assistance in its fight against ISIL, echoing calls they made at the Paris conference on 15 September.
On 26 September 2014, Prime Minister David Cameron recalled Parliament to debate the authorisation of British airstrikes against ISIL in Iraq. Cameron insisted that intervention, at the request of the Iraqi government, to combat a "brutal terrorist organisation" was "morally justified". He went on to state that ISIL was a "direct threat to the United Kingdom" and that British inaction would lead to "more killing" in Iraq. Following a seven-hour debate, Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of airstrikes, with 524 votes in favour and 43 against. The 43 'No' votes came from 23 Labour MPs, six Conservative MPs, five Scottish National Party MPs, three Social Democratic and Labour Party MPs, two Plaid Cymru MPs, one Liberal Democrat MP, one Green Party MP, and one Respect Party MP. Following the vote, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon told the BBC that the priority would be to stop the slaughter of civilians in Iraq, and that the UK and its allies would be guided by Iraqi and Kurdish intelligence in identifying targets.
Airstrikes
The Royal Air Force began conducting armed sorties over Iraq immediately after parliamentary approval, using its six Tornado GR4s stationed at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. The first airstrike took place on 30 September 2014, when a pair of Tornado GR4s attacked an ISIL heavy weapons position using a Paveway IV laser-guided bomb and an armed pickup truck using a Brimstone missile.
In October 2014, a further two Tornado GR4 strike aircraft and an undisclosed number of armed MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles joined the operation. The first MQ-9 Reaper airstrike took place on 10 October 2014. Elsewhere, the Royal Navy tasked Type 45 destroyer HMS Defender to escort the US Navy aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) whilst it launched aircraft into Iraq and Syria.
According to Defence Secretary Michael Fallon, the UK had conducted a "huge number of missions" over Iraq by 13 December 2014, a number which was "second only to the United States" and "five times as many as France". By 5 February 2015, the UK had contributed 6% of all coalition airstrikes in Iraq – a contribution second only to the United States – which the Defence Select Committee nevertheless described as "modest".
By 26 September 2015, a full year after the operation first began, Tornado and Reaper aircraft had flown over 1,300 missions against ISIL and had conducted more than 300 airstrikes, killing more than 330 ISIL fighters. The aircraft had released a combined 311 AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, 117 Brimstone missiles and 540 Paveway IV laser-guided bombs by 24 January 2016. In June 2016, the RAF used its Storm Shadow cruise missiles against ISIL for the first time, attacking a large concrete bunker in Western Iraq.
On 14 March 2017, Forces.net reported that the RAF had conducted more than 1,253 airstrikes in Iraq, a number which remained second only to the United States.
After ISIL were defeated at the Battle of Baghuz Fawqani in March 2019, the RAF only conducted 7 flying missions in the rest of 2019. After a nine-month period of no airstrikes, they resumed once again on 10 April 2020 when two Eurofighter Typhoons, together with an MQ-9 Reaper, identified and engaged ISIL forces in Iraq, about 200 km north of Baghdad. By July 2020, the UK had carried out 40 airstrikes in the past year.
In March 2021, a series of airstrikes were carried out by the RAF against ISIL hidden within caves in Northern Iraq. The initial sorties saw the first-time combat use of the Storm Shadow cruise missile by the Eurofighter Typhoon, followed by up to 20 Paveway IV laser-guided bombs in the days after. The remains of a Storm Shadow cruise missile were later discovered in Northern Iraq and reported in Iraqi media, however it is not known whether these remains belonged to an RAF missile or one from the French Air Force.
The Royal Navy deployed UK Carrier Strike Group 21, a carrier strike group centred around the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, on a debut operational deployment in June 2021. Operating from the eastern Mediterranean, the aircraft carrier launched its embarked RAF and US Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II multirole combat aircraft over Iraq and Syria. Whilst the MOD made little comment regarding airstrikes, the United States Naval Institute confirmed they had taken place. By early July, the carrier strike group had ended its support and continued on its primary tasking to the Indo-Pacific via the Suez Canal.
Between January 2019 and January 2021, British airstrikes in Iraq and Syria killed at least 67 ISIS militants and injured a further four.
In 2022, the UK conducted a total of two airstrikes in Iraq. In 2023, the UK struck two ISIL targets in northeastern Iraq in support of an Iraqi security forces operation.
On 21 April 2024, a pair of Typhoons struck a rocket launcher which was targeting coalition forces in northwestern Iraq.
Training mission
In October 2014, the British Government agreed to send 12 members of the 2nd Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment (2 YORKS) into Irbil to train Peshmerga on how to use UK-supplied heavy machine guns. The number of British troops involved in this training mission eventually rose from 12 to 50 before being bolstered by an additional batch of British troops numbering in the "low hundreds". It was also disclosed that a small team of "combat-ready" troops were sent along with them to provide force protection. By 2016, an additional 30 troops were deployed to train Iraqi forces, which brought the total number of deployed British troops in Iraq to 300. The British Army had also trained over 31,000 Iraqi and Peshmerga fighters.
In 2016, a squadron of up to 80 Royal Engineers was deployed to help construct better training facilities at the Al Asad Airbase. This was followed by a six-month deployment of 44 Royal Engineers of 5 Armoured Engineer Squadron, 22 Engineer Regiment to Al Asad Airbase in 2017. This brought the number of British personnel at the base to more than 300 and the total in Iraq to around 600.
In January 2017, the BBC reported that L/Cpl Scott Hetherington died in a "shooting accident" at Camp Taji, Iraq. Hetherington was a member of the Force Protection Platoon, Blenheim Company, 2nd Battalion Duke of Lancaster's Regiment; he was the first British soldier to die in Iraq in almost eight years. About 150 soldiers from the battalion were being deployed to Iraq for a period of six months, forming part of a 500-strong force being sent to train Iraqi and Kurdish security forces.
In January 2020, amid heightened tensions between the United States and Iran following the Baghdad International Airport airstrike, which killed the senior Iranian military commander, Qasem Soleimani, the British Army training mission in Iraq was temporarily suspended due to safety concerns. Around two months later, a rocket attack on the Iraqi military base Camp Taji, hosting British, American and Australian military personnel, resulted in the death of three soldiers, including one Briton. She was later identified as L/Cpl Brodie Gillon of the Royal Army Medical Corps and reservist of the Scottish and North Irish Yeomanry. At the time of the attack, the training mission was still suspended and had been scaled down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. An Iranian-backed militia was believed to be responsible for the attack and was subsequently targeted by an American retaliatory airstrike.
Elements of the Welsh Guards were deployed to Erbil, Iraq between June and December 2022.
In February 2023, the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards returned from an operational tour in Iraq, providing protection for UK personnel deployed on Operation Shader.