British Prime Minister David Cameron informed Parliament the government had launched a drone strike on August 21, which assassinated three people in Syria alleged to be Islamic State militants, including two British citizens. The strike against British citizen Reyaad Khan, the “target of the strike,” was committed without approval from Parliament. British citizen Ruhul Amin, who was killed in the strike, was deemed an “associate” worthy of death.

President Barack Obama’s administration has apparently expanded covert drone operations in Syria in order to strike leaders of the Islamic State. But the expansion is destined to fail as much as previous operations in other countries, which have only fueled the rise of violent extremism.

The population of the Palestinian refugee camp in Yarmouk, on the southern outskirts of Damascus, was once around 200,000 people. A brutal siege by the Syrian regime and an occupation by fighters from the al Qaida arm in Syria and the Islamic State dramatically reduced that number to 18,000 in March. Now, it is somewhere between 5,000 and 8,000 people, according to journalist Patrick Strickland.