10:20 YouGov has been tracking public opinion on how to respond to the Isil threat. Some 52pc would now approve RAF air strikes on Isil in Syria, with 27pc opposing. Last month support and opposition were level at 37pc.
10:07 Former foreign secretary Jack Straw has said he is not against the principle of "proportionate and sensible" British involvement in military action against Isil although operations in Syria required "some kind of consent" from the Syrian government.
The Labour MP told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "We're part of the Western alliance, we have key interests - direct and indirect - in the region, so in principle we should be involved provided the circumstances are right."
Pushed on whether Britain should be involved in Iraq and Syria, Mr Straw said:
What I think is encouraging about what's been announced overnight is there's an alliance of Arab countries involved in this because it should not just be as the satans of the West coming in to defend their interests.
The biggest threat Isil poses is to the Arab world and to ordinary Arab people."
09:58 More from the Telegraph's Ruth Sherlock:
The key, say Syrians in the area where the US strikes took place, is for airpower to accompany adept political manoeuvring, where the US works to win the support of local Syrians.
One such group that the US and its allies should be working with is the Sheitaat tribe. Numbering up to 70,000, for decades this Bedouin tribe has controlled the transport routes to and from the lucrative oil fields.
In August this year Isil showed the Bedouins no mercy, reportedly killing up to 700 people as they slashed their way through the terrain and seized two major oil fields in northeastern Deir al-Zour province.
If the US can win the support of the Sheitaat tribe, they potentially have a useful ally in shutting down Isil's biggest source of funding.
Airstrikes alone, however, could backfire, actually increasing local support for the jihadist group, residents of Raqqa have warned.
Abu Ibrahim al-Raqqawi said the rise of Isil in Syria was a direct result of US inaction against the Syrian regime, arguing that an opportunity for the extremists to take power was presented in the vacuum of law and order created by the Syrian civil war. He warned that US airstrikes on Raqqa might only make the situation worse:
"If the US strikes Raqqa it will increase the popularity of Isil. I think when Isil slaughtered the American journalists, they intended to provoke the West to start airstrikes as they know this would only increase their popularity."
"Isil knows that because the civilian casualties would be high, they will become more popular."
09:49 Air strikes by US-led coalition forces in Syria killed 30 fighters from al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and eight civilians including children, a group monitoring the war said on Tuesday.
The strikes targeted a residential building in Aleppo province used by Nusra Front, said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The United States said earlier on Tuesday its forces had carried out eight strikes against al Qaeda-affilated militants west of Aleppo.
09:34 A threat to kill a French hostage in Algeria will not deter France from continuing air strikes on Isil fighters in Iraq, the French prime minister, Manuel Valls, said on Tuesday, writes David Chazan in Paris.
“These strikes, this commitment will obviously continue,” Mr Valls told Europe 1 radio in Berlin, where he has been meeting the German chancellor, Angela Merkel.
However, he said France was working with the Algerian government “to do everything to allow our compatriot to recover his freedom”.
An Algerian group linked to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil) threatened to kill the hostage, Hervé Gourdel, 55, by the end of Tuesday unless France halts its bombing raids. Jund al-Khilifa (Soldiers of the Caliphate) said it was responding to a call from Isil to kill nationals of countries in the US-led coalition against the terrorist group.
France became the first western US ally to launch air strikes on Friday. Mr Gourdel, who was on a trekking holiday in a mountainous region of Algeria, was abducted on Sunday.
09:10 Syria's Western-backed National Coalition opposition group welcomed air strikes by the United States and Gulf Arab allies on Islamic State strongholds in Syria on Tuesday, saying they would strengthen its struggle against President Bashar al-Assad.
"This will make us stronger in the fight against Assad... The campaign should continue until the Islamic State is completely eradicated from Syrian lands," Monzer Akbik, special envoy to the president of the coalition, told Reuters.
09:02The Telegraph's Ruth Sherlock writes:
But while it may alleviate some domestic pressures, the attacks have opened a new and potentially dangerous chapter, both in the fight against Isil and in the Syrian civil war.
Local reports and YouTube footage suggest the airstrikes took place against targets in Isil's capital Raqqa, as well as in the neighbouring northern provinces of Deir al-Zour and Aleppo.
The announcement that the United States would strike in Syria had temporarily cowed the jihadists, who were reported to have melted away from many of their positions to seek out hiding places where they could protect themselves from the strikes.
However, in the longer term bombing Isil from the air, especially in Syria, is a strategy potentially laden with pitfalls.
In Iraq, the air attacks have assisted the advance of a ground force on Isil positions; either the Kurdish peshmerga forces in the north of the country, or the Iraqi government and Shia allied militias further south.
The same would need to happen in Syria if the air attacks are to have effect. But it is less clear there who that ground force would be.
The so called "moderate opposition" groups - rebels who have not joined Isil or Al-Qaeda's Jabhat al-Nusra - who formed themselves initially to fight the Syrian regime have dwindled in strength and become fractured after three years of war with minimal western support.
The US and its allies are trying to reverse this trend, sending in weapons and providing training to build up the strength of this opposition as a ground force to counter Isil.
Past efforts to build up the strength of this opposition has failed as the groups fractured and squabbled among themselves over limited weapons supplies. Efforts to transform them into a proper fighting force then will take a long time, and, western diplomats have told the Telegraph, even then, they will not be strong enough in numbers to fight Isil alone.
08:57 Twitter users were discussing the US air strikes against Isil before they were officially announced.
Abdulkader Hariri began tweeting about huge explosions in the city of Raqqa around 30 minutes before the Pentagon made its announcement:
08:45 An Islamic State fighter said on Tuesday the group will respond to US-led air strikes inside Syria and blamed Saudi Arabia for allowing them to happen.
"These attacks will be answered. The sons of Saloul are the ones who are to be blamed. It happened because of them," he told Reuters, using a derogatory term for Saudi Arabia's royal Saudi family.
08:35 Israel has shot down a Syrian fighter jet which entered their airspace, the first time in 25 years that Israel has taken such action against one of Syria's planes, according to the Telegraph's Robert Tait.
"A warplane that penetrated Israeli territory was successfully shot down a short while ago by the air defence systems along the Syrian border," a military statement said, without giving further details.
Army radio said it was apparently a MiG-21 fighter jet which was shot down by a surface-to-air Patriot missile, with the wreckage landing on the Syrian-controlled side of the plateau.
08:33 The US military has confirmed its partners in air strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria included Jordan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
In a CENTCOM statement, it added the US military had taken action to disrupt "imminent attack" against the US and Western interests by "seasoned al Qaeda veterans" who had established a safe haven in Syria, according to Reuters. "These strikes were undertaken only by US assets," it said.
The statement said the US had launched strikes from warships in international waters in the Red Sea and the North Arabian Gulf.
It said Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi and the UAE had "also participated in or supported the air strikes against (Islamic State) targets. All aircraft safely exited the strike areas," it said.
The statement said:
The strikes destroyed or damaged multiple ISIL targets in the vicinity of the towns of Ar Raqqah in north central Syria, Dayr az Zawr and Abu Kamal in eastern Syria and Al Hasakah in northeastern Syria. The targets included ISIL fighters, training compounds, headquarters and command and control facilities, storage facilities, a finance center, supply trucks and armed vehicles, the news release said.
The US military also targeted another militan group, the al-Qaeda linked Khorasan Group:
In total, US Central Command forces conducted eight strikes against Khorasan Group targets located west of Aleppo, to include training camps, an explosives and munitions production facility, a communication building and command and control facilities.
08:30 Jordan has said its warplanes joined the strikes against Islamic State, becoming the first Arab state to confirm its participation in the raids.
"We took part in the strikes which are part of our efforts to defeat terrorism in its strongholds," government spokesman Mohammad Al-Momani told AFP.
08:22 First footage of US air strikes
08:00The Telegraph's Ruth Sherlock writes:
There is also the question of how this plays out in terms of the Syrian regime. It's difficult to see how the US can fight Isil in Syria without seeming as if it is, indirectly at least, supporting the Syrian regime.
07:57 Syrian state television said the United States informed Syria's UN representative on Monday that Islamic State targets would be hit in Raqqa, which is 400 km (250 miles) northeast of Damascus. A group monitoring the war in Syria said at least 20 Islamic State fighters were killed.
07:55 Britain was not involved in the air strikes against Isil. The Ministry of Defence say discussions are 'ongoing' and no decision has been made.
07:52 A US official, speaking to the Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity, said that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Bahrain were involved although their exact roles in the military action were unclear.
Qatar played a supporting role in the air strikes, the official said, in what is an unprecedented and unexpected show of regional solidarity against the Isil group that has rampaged through Syria and Iraq.
07:50 Also overnight, British hostage John Cantlie was once more paraded by Isil extremists to deliver a message of defiance against the US and their allies in the latest video to be released online.
The video, close to six minutes long, is titled ‘Lend Me Your Ears – Messages from the British Detainee John Cantlie’ and is tagged as episode one. At the end of the film Cantlie urges viewers to “join him next time”.
An US AV-8B Harrier jet launching from the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island (US NAVY / Christopher Lindahl/EPA)
07:45 Welcome to live coverage of the US campaign against Islamic State (IS). Overnight, the US and its allies launched a fresh offensive against the fighters of the Islamic State (Isil), striking targets in Syria for the first time using cruise missiles, drones as well as warplanes.
The strikes were concentrated around the city of Raqqa, the militants’ main stronghold close to the border with Iraq.
“US military and partner nation forces have begun striking Isil targets in Syria using mix of fighters, bombers and Tomahawk missiles,” said Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary.
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