Rochdale Peace Campaigners say 'bombing is not the answer!'

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group protest against the parliamentary vote to join the US-led bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria.

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group took to the street immediately on Friday (26 September 2014) to protest against the parliamentary vote to join the US-led bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria.

They unfurled a large banner reading 'Bombing is not the answer!' and displayed peace flags at the junction of A58 and A664 in Sudden.

Philip Gilligan on behalf of the Peace Group said: "‘The grim atrocities carried out by the so-called Islamic State (IS) have rightly shocked and repulsed the world, but heaping further atrocities onto the people of Iraq cannot be the answer.

"Airstrikes will inevitably result in the deaths of civilians; innocent children, women and men who have played no part in the actions of IS. It was the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003 that led to the chaos which has allowed the rise of the so-called Islamic State.

"What is needed now is urgent humanitarian assistance, political pressure and working with allies in the region to halt the spread of this murderous group: not another disastrous and ill-conceived bombing campaign which will make the situation worse."