Rupert Jones (British Army officer)

Jones speaks with a British explosive ordnance disposal trainer during a visit near Erbil, Iraq, November 2016.

In April 2016 Jones was promoted to major general, becoming, at age 47, the youngest general in the British Army at the time, and was appointed the deputy commander of Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) later that year.[1] In November 2016, he hailed the "extraordinary amount of progress" made by the international coalition, as result of their daily strikes against Da'esh.[12]

In February 2017, during a briefing in London, Jones stated: "We as an international coalition have always been very clear: if you are going to take up arms on behalf of Da'esh, and you are going to kill innocent civilians, we will find you and we will kill you. That does not matter whether they are from London, or Paris, or from Baghdad. We will target you under the laws of armed conflict".[13][14] He added that Da'esh fighters were being killed "at a rate they simply can't sustain".[15] Commenting on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, he said: "If we in the international coalition knew where he was, for certain then he wouldn't stay alive for very long. I think if he was dead then there probably would have been an announcement to say he's dead. Most of Baghdadi's lieutenants are dead. He is now frankly in hiding. His narrative of some kind of caliphate, well that's exposed as a lie when you're in hiding yourself."[13]

In August 2017, Jones echoed comments made by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in a Pentagon press conference, by giving Da'esh fighters the choice to "surrender or die".[16] He went on to say that Da'esh "are losing on all fronts. They are losing on the battlefield, they are losing financially, the flow of foreign fighters has slowed to a trickle. Their narrative has been significantly discredited".[16]

Jones handed over to Major General Felix Gedney in late August 2017.[17]

In January 2018, Jones was appointed Assistant Chief of the General Staff in succession to Major General Nick Welch. The role represents the Chief of the General Staff in Whitehall.[18] Jones was appointed an Officer of the Legion of Merit by the United States in May 2018 for his service in Iraq and Syria.[19] On 3 September 2018, his title was renamed as Director Engagement and Communications (D E&C), acting as the Army's communications director with responsibility for all internal and external engagement.[20]

Jones was appointed Standing Joint Force Commander in November 2018.[21] In August 2020 he faced allegations in the media of breaking COVID-19 lockdown to conduct an affair with a married woman, but was reportedly cleared of wrongdoing by the military.[22]