UK Parliament Approves Airstrikes in Iraq Against Islamic State

The British parliament approved a motion Friday to join the U.S. led air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq.

 524 lawmakers voted in support of airstrikes against the Islamic State while 43 voted against it in the special parliamentary session called by Prime Minister David Cameron for the vote on joining the U.S. led airstrikes in Iraq.

Before the voting took place, Cameron made a fervent appeal to lawmakers for taking strong action against the Islamic State militants stating it was a brutal organization which beheads victims, takes out their eyes and undertakes crucifixions.

"This is about psychopathic terrorists that are trying to kill us and we do have to realize that, whether we like it or not, they have already declared war on us," Cameron said. "There isn't a 'walk on by' option. There isn't an option of just hoping this will go away," he said, reports the Associated Press.

Cameron said that the threat from the Islamic State is not far from Britain. If it was not curbed now, Britain will have to face the Islamic state caliphate near the Mediterranean and close to a NATO member country, he said, reports Reuters.  

Regarding airstrikes in Syria, Cameron said that the situation there was more complicated than Iraq and Britain was not going to change its plans presently.

"ISIS needs to be destroyed in Syria as well as Iraq and we support the action the U.S. and five Arab states have taken in Syria and I do believe there is a strong case for us to do more in Syria," he said. "But I did not want to bring a motion to the house today which there wasn't consensus for," Cameron said, reports CNN.