Former al-Qaeda: Syria air strikes 'exercise in futility'

UK air strike in Syria are "somewhat an exercise in futility", former al-Qaeda member Aimen Dean has told the Today programme.

Dean, who left al-Qaeda and from 1998 worked as a spy for MI5 and MI6, criticized the only "partial" success of air strikes from the US, Saudis, Kuwaitis, French, Emiratis and Jordanians over the past year.

"Adding a few more jets is not going to achieve any more strategic objectives… basically it’s just focused on the tactical rather than the objective and forgetting completely that ISIS is a symptom rather than the cause,” he said.