A former SAS soldier from Southampton has said that the war against Islamic State is unwinnable.

Phil Campion, who lives in the city, said this morning that the war against Islamic State (IS) cannot be won as things stand.

His comments come after he was granted rare access to Kurdish forces who were fighting the terrorist group on the frontline as part of a Sky documentary.

This morning on Sky News, Mr Campion said: “I believe it is unwinnable at the moment unless we do something a bit more than what we are doing.

“Airstrikes alone are not enough to win a war like this - at some stage somebody has got to get in the weeds and get messy.”

He also spoke about his experiences on the frontlines of Iraq and Syria while filming the documentary “Fighting IS: Big Phil’s War”, which saw him embedded with the YPG and Kurdish Peshmerga.

The former D Squadron SAS soldier warned those fighting IS are dangerously under equipped, saying: “They’re not well equipped, they have got old Russian gear that has been cannibalised and that has been picked off the enemy.

“They have got a limited supply of ammunition and bombs and they’re up against a force that are taking their weapons and gear from an Iraqi army, that have capitulated once they have been fully equipped and decked out by the Americans with all the latest gear.

“It is a very long front line and in some places it is not well equipped as others.

"The only thing that evens this fight up at all is the fact that these guys are so game and willing to fight.”

He also met with the ruthless women warriors of the YPJ who he says IS are scared of being killed by as it will bar them from paradise.

Mr Campion is one of a number of veterans who are critical of the support that the Kurdish soldiers fighting IS have been given by their allies.

• Fighting IS: Big Phil's War is on Sky Atlantic Tuesday at 10pm and on Sky News on Wednesday at 9pm.