LONDON
Protesters have gathered outside Downing Street to demonstrate against military action in Iraq ahead of a parliamentary debate on the issue Friday.
Around 300 gathered outside Prime Minister David Cameron’s office in London on Thursday before lawmakers vote on military strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants in Iraq.
Tansy Hoskins, an activist with the Stop the War Coalition, said: "I was against the bombing of Iraq 10 years ago and I am against it now… Everything we said would happen, has happened, things have got worst.
"If ISIL came out of 10 years of war in Iraq, what do you think will happen in 20 years?"
Student Samuel Looney, 22, said: "I’m growing tired of being associated with a country that continues to get in the Middle East in such a violent way."
Putting the case for military intervention in Iraq, the U.K. government issued a statement said such action would be legal because the Iraqi government had requested assistance in fighting ISIL.
Britain currently supplies arms to the regional Kurdish government in northern Iraq and is conducting surveillance operations but has not joined airstrikes against ISIL in Syria or Iraq.
Last year, Cameron lost a parliamentary vote to attack the Syrian regime but now lawmakers are thought to be more supportive of action against ISIL, which controls large areas of Syria and Iraq and has horrified world opinion by committing atrocities against civilians and prisoners.
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