British fighter jets carried out their first airstrikes in Syria, hours after UK legislators voted in favor of bombing ISIS bastions there. "RAF Tornadoes have just returned from their first offensive operation over Syria and have conducted strikes," a spokesman for Britain's Ministry of Defence said on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Britain vowed to join the coalition of nations conducting airstrikes against extremist group Islamic State's strongholds in Syria, after Parliamentarians voted to sanction the UK’s participation. MPs voted 397 to 223 in favour of conducting air raids over Syria, reported The Guardian. Following the decision, US President Barack Obama said the coalition would work “to integrate them as quickly as possible.”

UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was opposed to the bombing, gave his party MPs a free vote, and 66 of them backed the government initiative to bomb Syria. Prime Minister David Cameron had started the debate in Parliament by saying that ISIS is a threat to the British people and called bombing IS strongholds in Syria “part of a process to bring peace and stability to Syria”. Corbyn said a diplomatic solution for the Syrian crisis should be the goal instead, challenging Cameron to explain “how British bombing in Syria will contribute to a comprehensive, negotiated, political settlement of the Syrian war.”