France launches air strikes against Islamic State
French warplanes have pounded the Islamic State group’s de facto Syrian capital Raqa, destroying a command post and a training camp.
French Rafale fighter jets in flight. The French Air Force on 15 November launched a massive campaign of airstrikes against the Islamic State in its stronghold of al-Raqqa in Syria. Image supplied
In its first air strike against IS since the string of deadly Paris attacks claimed by the jihadist group, 12 warplanes, including 10 fighter bombers, dropped 20 bombs on the targets.
“The first target destroyed was used by Daesh (another Arabic acronym for IS) as a command post, jihadist recruitment centre and arms and munitions depot. The second held a terrorist training camp,” a French defence ministry statement said on Sunday.
The planes left from Jordan and the United Arab Emirates and was conducted in co-ordination with American forces, the ministry said.
French President Francois Hollande on Saturday blamed the Islamic State group for the gun and suicide attacks that left at least 129 dead in Paris on Friday, calling them an “act of war”.
