France begins strikes in Iraq as anti-jihadist drive widens

Iraqi Sunni gunmen, who took up arms alongside security forces to defend the town of Dhuluiyah from jihadists, hold a position on the front line in the Jubur area on September 17, 2014. France carried out its first air strike against the Islamic State group in Iraq on September 19, 2014. PHOTO| AFP

By  AFP

What you need to know:

  • More than a decade after Paris famously refused to back the invasion of Iraq, France became the first nation to join the US campaign of air strikes in the war-torn country
  • The bombing campaign was launched to protect Iraqi Kurdistan from advancing jihadists and attempt to help the autonomous region’s troops retake the ground they lost
  • The US leader instead pledged to support Kurdish and Iraqi forces by offering air support, arms, intelligence and training

BAGHDAD, Friday

France carried out its first air strike against the Islamic State group in Iraq on Friday, boosting US-led efforts to unite the world against the growing threat posed by the jihadists.

More than a decade after Paris famously refused to back the invasion of Iraq, France became the first nation to join the US campaign of air strikes in the war-torn country.
“This morning at 9:40, our Rafale planes carried out a first strike against a logistics depot of the terrorist organisation (IS),” President Francois Hollande said.

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His office said the target was in northeastern Iraq, without specifying exactly where, only adding: “The objective was hit and completely destroyed.”

FIRST STRIKE
French defence ministry sources said two jets dropped laser-guided GBU-12 bombs in the Mosul area.

Kurdish military spokesman Halgord Hekmat identified the location as Tal Mus, between the city of Mosul and Zumar.

“We are very happy that France started its raids,” he told AFP.

France, as well as Britain, had already sent aircraft into Iraq’s skies for surveillance missions, but Friday’s strike was its first against the jihadists.

US aircraft have carried out more than 170 strikes since August 8 but President Barack Obama has been keen to build a broad international coalition.

BOMBING CAMPAIGN

The bombing campaign was launched to protect Iraqi Kurdistan from advancing jihadists and attempt to help the autonomous region’s troops retake the ground they lost.

Jihadists who had already controlled large swathes of land in neighbouring Syria led a militant offensive that took the city of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest, on June 10 and then swept through much of the Sunni heartland.

Footage of the beheading of two US journalists and a British aid worker in Syria sparked international outrage and spurred calls for tougher action against what is widely regarded as the most violent and powerful organisation in modern jihad.

Despite broad domestic support for a tougher stance, Obama has vowed not to send “boots on the ground”, fearful of dragging US forces back into the Iraqi quagmire only three years after pulling them out.

The US leader instead pledged to support Kurdish and Iraqi forces by offering air support, arms, intelligence and training.

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