French aircraft have bombed Islamic State positions in Syria, Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said Tuesday, in its first such strike on the country's soil since the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
"Our armed forces remain engaged in battling terrorism in the Levant," Lecornu wrote on X while on a New Year visit to French UN peacekeepers in Lebanon.
"On Sunday, French air assets carried out targeted strikes against Daesh on Syrian soil," he added, using the Arabic name for IS.
Nos armées restent engagées dans la lutte contre le terrorisme au Levant.
— Sébastien Lecornu (@SebLecornu) December 31, 2024
Elles contribuent à la coalition internationale "Operation Inherent Resolve" (OIR), depuis 2014 en Irak et 2015 en Syrie.
Dimanche, des moyens aériens français ont procédé à des frappes ciblées contre des… pic.twitter.com/uwzOmcJDce
The defense ministry told AFP that France's Rafale fighter jets and US-made Reaper drones "dropped a total of seven bombs on two military targets belonging to Daesh in central Syria".
France has neen part of the Inherent Resolve international coalition against IS since 2014 for Iraq and 2015 for Syria.
French troops involved in the operations are based in the region, including in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
As Assad's fall to a shock offensive by Syrian rebels led by a radical Sunni group rapidly reshapes the country, observers fear space could be left for IS to regather its strength.
The group has survived in both Iraq and Syria despite the destruction of its so-called caliphate that lasted from 2014 to 2019.
Washington said in mid-December that it had doubled American troop numbers fighting jihadists in Syria, to around 2,000.
Its Central Command (Centcom) – responsible for the Middle East – said it wanted to ensure that IS "does not seek to take advantage of the current situation to reconstitute in central Syria".
Around 2,500 US troops are also deployed in Iraq, according to Washington.
With AFP
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