Britain carries out airstrikes on ISIL after fiery debate in Parliament

British Tornado bombers conducted their first air strikes on Syria just hours after parliament approved Prime Minister David Cameron's plan to strike at Islamic State militants in Syria, a government source said on Thursday.

Four Royal Air Force Tornados took off from a British air base in Akrotiri, Cyprus, shortly after the vote

A Ministry of Defense spokesman told the AP the planes had constructed strikes in Syria, and details about their targets would be provided later Thursday,

He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give his name when discussing operations.

The strikes came after an intense debate in the British Parliament that played out Wednesday ahead of the vote to authorize the United Kingdom to authorize airstrikes against ISIL targets in Syria.

The discussion comes amid splits in opposition party ranks over a ratcheting up of military involvement in the conflict and wariness among the wider public about being involved in another Middle East war. Protests against airstrikes took place outside Parliament throughout the day.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who was confident of winning the ballot sanctioning airstrikes, lashed out at his opponents for sympathizing with terrorists, as he made the case for great action — an accusation that led to angry scenes within Parliament.

"The threat is very real," Cameron said of the potential for the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to target the U.K. at the start of a 10-hour debate due to culminate in a vote at around 9 p.m. local time. 

He added: "The question is this — do we work with our allies to degrade and destroy this threat and do we go after these terrorists in their heartlands from where they are plotting to kill British people, or do we sit back and wait for them?"

Cameron had faced opposition in the ranks after it emerged that he urged his Conservative Party lawmakers at a private meeting late Tuesday not to vote with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn "and a bunch of terrorist sympathizers."

"This is a contemptible and desperate slur which demeans his office," Corbyn's spokesman said, calling for an apology from Cameron. A spokeswoman for Cameron's Downing Street office did not offer an official comment. The Prime Minister did not apologize for the remark in his address in Parliament on Wednesday.

In a further sign of rising passions over the affair, Labour deputies backing airstrikes have become targets of biting social media attacks by left-wing activists.

Cameron has said he believes British warplanes, which have been bombing ISIL targets in Iraq for more than a year, should also be tackling the group in Syria rather than to "sub-contract" national security to other countries.

The Nov. 13 attacks in Paris that killed 130 people, claimed by ISIL, gave momentum to Cameron's push for airstrikes, but critics have questioned whether the action would significantly add to international efforts to defeat the group. Questions have also been raised over whether the pursuit of a Commons vote is in some part also a political move to foster a rebellion among some Labour MP’s against Corbyn, who is on the left wing of the party.

Keen to avoid a repeat of a humiliating 2013 parliamentary defeat over plans to bomb the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Cameron had made it clear he would not bring a vote to Parliament if he did not think he could win it.

That appeared more likely after Corbyn, a veteran anti-war campaigner who says strikes would be ineffective and kill civilians, said on Monday he would allow his lawmakers to vote according to their conscience rather than directing them to follow his lead.

Corbyn, for his part, warned MPs against an "ill-thought rush to war."

Ministers are confident that MPs will ultimately say "yes," while campaigners have promised a new protest outside Parliament after a demonstration on Tuesday drew around 4,000 people.

"Don't go and bomb a country where [we] make the war even worse," Lindsey German, of the the Stop the War Coalition protest movement, said Tuesday night. 

London's Syrian community also voiced apprehension about the U.K. launching airstrikes.

"We are not accepting any air strikes on Syria," says Homs-born Bassam emphatically, as he repaired a coffee machine in one of the two Syrian cafes on Edgware Road — a popular street with an abundance of Middle Eastern restaurants and shisha lounges.

"We should be sitting around a table talking about this. People are being killed without any excuse. There has been no good result so far — only refugees coming to Europe from all over the world," he continued, adding: "Syria will soon be empty."

The vote comes after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged NATO to intensify the fight against ISIL.

British support for strikes has dropped sharply in a week according to an opinion poll published Wednesday, with those in favor down to 48 percent from 59 percent, and those against rising to 31 percent from 21 percent in the YouGov survey for the Times.

Britain is still scarred by the memory of unpopular wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and has played a smaller role in recent foreign military actions, leading to concerns that its global clout is diminishing.

Cameron urged MPs not to allow Iraq to dictate their decision, saying: "This is not 2003. We must not use past mistakes as an excuse for indifference or inaction."

The prime minister insisted military action is needed to prevent attacks like those that befell Paris, saying the bombing would be accompanied by a diplomatic push to resolve the Syrian conflict.

Military experts question how much difference Britain would make to the campaign, saying the move may be more about Britain wanting to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with allies like France and the United States.

"It will not make a big operational difference," Professor Malcolm Chalmers of military think-tank the Royal United Services Institute told Agence France Presse. "It is important symbolically, useful operationally, but not transformative."

Al Jazeera and wire services. Lydia Noon contributed to this report.