Britain's House of Commons on Wednesday voted to support a government motion on extending UK airstrikes against the Islamic State (IS) to Syria after 10 hours of intense debate.
The motion, requesting British "military action, specifically airstrikes, exclusively against ISIL (IS) in Syria," was approved by 397 votes to 223.
The approval will pave the way for British warplanes to extend their bombing missions from Iraq to Syria.
The debate and vote came amid continued protests against British military intervention in Syria. More than 1,000 protesters, led by the Stop the War coalition, demonstrated outside the Parliament Wednesday, chanting and holding placards reading: "Hands off Syria", "Don't bomb Syria" and "Say no to more imperialist war", among others.
Britain has been bombing IS, also known as ISIL, ISIS or Daesh, in Iraq since the House of Commons voted to authorize airstrikes in the Middle East country in September 2014.
Speaking after the vote, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said: "Britain is safer because of the actions taken by MPs today."
He added that he was "very pleased that a significant number of Labour MPs voted with us to degrade this terrorist organization."
