First Minister's 'no plan' warning over Syria action

The First Minister has warned of the dangers of military intervention in Syria without what he called "a plan".

He said he was not sure such a plan existed, adding the situation was not going to improve while so-called Islamic State was in existence.

Carwyn Jones drew a comparison with the 2003 invasion of Iraq saying "chaos reigned" there in the years after military action.

He was speaking after the Paris attacks on Friday which killed 132 people.

"The situation is not going to improve while Islamic State exists, that much is true," he said.

"But above all else what Iraq has taught us surely is there needs to be a plan and I'm not sure that such a plan exists as yet.

"But a plan to deal with these terrorists and a plan of course to bring peace back to countries such as Syria and Iraq.

"What we found ten or twelve years ago is there was an invasion of Iraq and then chaos reigned.

"We don't want to see that again".

Meanwhile, Welsh Secretary Stephen Crabb said MPs should look again at whether the UK government should bomb so-called Islamic State targets in Syria after the "violence and barbarity" of the Paris attacks.

Mr Crabb said the killings showed the need to confront IS, which he said presented the biggest threat to the international community since Nazism in the 1930s. He warned the battle against Islamic extremism also had to be won at home in Wales.

"We do this country a huge disservice if we bury our heads in the sand and think this problem will go away. It requires some tough action internationally but also in this country too," he said.

"We can't pretend that there isn't a problem within these shores.

"Even within in Wales we have seen people born and bred in this country who've gone through Welsh schools, gone through Welsh youth clubs, leave this country to be part of a barbaric, violent death cult in Syria.

"That requires us to ask deep questions of the kind of society we're living in and of the kind of measures that we need to take to confront and challenge that."