France carries out first Iraq airstrike

PARIS: French jets carried out their first air strike against IS in Iraq Friday, successfully destroying their target, President Francois Hollande announced, vowing that more operations would follow. “This morning at 9:40, our Rafale planes carried out a first strike against a logistics depot of Daesh in north-east Iraq. The objective was hit and completely destroyed,” Hollande’s office said in a statement, using an alternative name for the IS extremist group. “Other operations will follow in the coming days,” added the statement from Hollande’s Elysee Palace office. “The prime minister will inform Parliament next week about the conditions of our forces’ engagement at the side of the Iraqi armed forces and the Peshmerga (Kurdish fighters) to weaken Daesh and restore Iraqi sovereignty,” the statement added. In a dramatic announcement at a hotly awaited news conference on Thursday, Hollande said France would provide what he called “aerial support” to the Iraqi army in their fight against the militant group which has taken over nearly half of the violence-ridden country. “I decided to respond to the request of the Iraqi authorities to offer aerial support,” Hollande said. “As soon as we have identified targets, we will act... within a short time-frame.” France has already conducted reconnaissance flights over Iraq that started Monday and dispatched weapons to the Kurdish forces fighting the IS group. Hollande said French involvement would be limited to Iraq. “We will not go further than that. There will be no ground troops and we will only intervene in Iraq,” said the president. France has six Rafale fighter jets and just under 1,000 soldiers based in the UAE and could even mobilize an aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle. AFP