Hollande said he agreed to Iraq’s request for air support at a
meeting of his top defense and security advisers earlier Thursday. (Christophe
Ena/Associated Press)
PARIS — Joining U.S. forces
acting in Iraqi skies, France conducted its first airstrikes Friday against the
militant Islamic State group, destroying a logistics depot that it controlled,
Iraqi and French officials said.
Rafale fighter jets accompanied
by support planes struck the depot in northern Iraq on Friday morning, and the
target was “entirely destroyed,” President Francois Hollande’s office said in a
statement. Iraq’s military spokesman said four French airstrikes killed dozens
of extremist fighters.
“Other operations will follow in
the coming days,” the French statement said.
Qassim al-Moussawi, spokesman for
the Iraqi military, said four French airstrikes hit the town of Zumar this
morning, killing dozens of extremist fighters. Zumar and surrounding towns are
heavily contested by Islamic State fighters, even though Iraqi and Kurdish
security forces have managed to make headway nearby with the support of U.S.
airstrikes.
With the strikes, France becomes
the first foreign country to publicly add military muscle to United States
airstrikes against the group, which has drawn criticism around the world and in
a unanimous U.N. Security Council resolution for its barbarity.
The first French airstrikes in
Iraq have added significance: France, one of America’s oldest allies, was among
the most vocal critics of the decision of U.S. President George W. Bush to
conduct military action in 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein.
Last year, France was ready to
join possible U.S. military action against President Bashar Assad’s force in
Syria, before U.S. President Barack Obama stopped short. French authorities in
recent weeks have suggested that the inaction there has fostered the development
of the militants.
The strikes come at a time when
polls show Hollande is the most unpopular French president in decades — mainly
for his handling of France’s economic difficulties. But he has drawn higher
marks from the French public in the international arena, including by helping
drive al-Qaida-linked militants from northern Mali last year and in central
African Republic in recent months.
U.S. Central Command said
Thursday the U.S. military has conducted 176 airstrikes in Iraq since Aug. 8.
On Wednesday, it hit a militant training camp southeast of Mosul and an
ammunition stockpile southeast of Baghdad. It has also conducted a number of
strikes this week in Iraq’s Anbar province, near the strategic Haditha Dam.
The French airstrike took place
while U.S. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was in
France for meetings with his counterpart, Gen. Pierre de Villiers. The two men
were visiting an American military cemetery in Normandy, on the English
Channel, when the French strike took place.
Dempsey, who was told of the
attack by de Villiers, praised the French action.
“The French were our very first
ally and they are there again for us,” Dempsey told reporters traveling with
him in Normandy. “It just reminds me why these relationships really matter.”
At a news conference a day
earlier, Hollande said France had agreed to “soon” conduct airstrikes requested
by Iraq to bolster its fight against the militants who have captured swaths of
the country.
He stressed that France wouldn’t go
beyond airstrikes in support of the Iraqi military or Kurdish Peshmerga forces,
and wouldn’t attack targets in Syria, where the Islamic State group has also
captured territory.
French jets on Monday began
flying reconnaissance missions over Iraq involving Rafales and an ATL2
surveillance plane, military spokesman Col. Gilles Jaron said.
Eds: Sylvie Corbet in Paris;
Robert Burns in Caen, France; and Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Sameer N. Yacoub and
Vivian Salama in Baghdad contributed
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