French Air Force Strikes ISIS Targets in Syria
The French Air Force carried out airstrikes on Islamic State (ISIS) targets in Syria over the weekend, the French Defense Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, announced on the online platform X on Tuesday. The attacks took place on Sunday, marking the first such engagement by the French military since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, when a coalition of armed opposition groups, led by the Islamist movement Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), overthrew him.
“Yesterday, French air forces carried out targeted strikes on Daesh facilities on Syrian soil” the minister said in a statement on X, using the Arabic term for ISIS. He also published a video showing the military operation. “Our forces remain committed to the fight against terrorism in the region” Lecornu said.
The short clip, published by the minister, shows images of a French military pilot preparing for the mission, followed by aerial footage of the bombardment of what appears to be a small camp in the desert. The Defense Ministry in Paris told AFP that French Rafale fighter jets and US Reaper drones dropped a total of seven bombs on two military targets of Daesh in central Syria.
France has been part of the Operation Inherent Resolve, a US-led coalition to combat terrorism in Syria and Iraq, since 2014, for operations in Iraq, and since 2015, for operations in Syria. Washington has maintained a military presence in Syria’s oil-rich provinces for several years.
In mid-December, the Pentagon announced that the number of US military personnel stationed on bases in the Middle East had risen from 900 to 2,000, citing the situation in Syria and the region’s great interest. The Syrian government has repeatedly accused the US of illegally stationing its troops in the country, claiming the US is primarily interested in Syria’s oil. In August 2022, Syrian and Russian officials claimed that US-linked companies were illegally exporting up to 66,000 barrels of oil from the country every day.