Danish MP: ‘Bomb women and children’

The head of parliament's Foreign Policy Committee said that in light of the Paris terror attacks, the West should get much more aggressive in its campaign against the terror group Isis.

Søren Espersen, a senior Danish People’s Party spokesman and the head of parliament's Foreign Policy Committee, said on Sunday that the US-led military campaign against Isis, which Denmark is participating in, should bomb civilian targets.

                                     

Speaking two days after Isis claimed credit for the Paris attacks that killed at least 129 people, Espersen said that the West is carrying out its campaign like “gentlemen” but needs to get more aggressive if it is ever to win the fight against Isis, which is alternately known as the Islamic State or IS.

“We aren’t bombing spots where there are civilians, but we need to start doing so. IS hides behind women and children in villages and towns and they know that we are gentlemen won’t bomb them. That needs to end,” he told TV2. 

When asked if that meant he thought the West should bomb women and children, Espersen said “yes, of course”. 

“We need to when that’s where the IS fighters are. Those women are also to a large extent part of the system. We can no longer have a situation in which IS operates completely freely knowing full well that they won’t be bombed,” he said. 

“We need to develop the war into a real war, otherwise we will lose,” Espersen added. 

Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, a spokesman for the ruling Venstre party, said that it would not support striking civilian targets. 

“We won’t bomb women and children. We aren’t barbarians,” he told TV2. 

The Local Denmark