France launches fierce assault on ISIS targets in Syria

mangaloretoday.com

Antalya, Turkey, Nov 15:  French warplanes launched a ferocious retaliatory assault late Sunday on targets in Raqqa, Syria - the Islamic State’s de facto capital - after coordination with U.S. defense officials who helped with the targeting.

The French Defense Ministry said that 10 aircraft dropped 20 bombs on facilities used by the militant group, which has claimed responsibility for Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris, striking a command center, a militant-training facility and an arms depot.

 

Opposition activists reached in Raqqa said they counted at least 30 bombs, which they said hit, among other things, a local football stadium, a museum and medical facilities. They said the strikes had knocked out electricity in the city of about 200,000 people.

The French statement said the operation, launched from bases in the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, was conducted in coordination with U.S. forces, who have compiled an extensive target list in Raqqa. American officials, speaking at the G20 summit here that President Barack Obama is attending, said the French operation was discussed between the two militaries, as well as in telephone calls Saturday and Sunday between Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and his French counterpart.

U.S. planes have repeatedly struck in and around Raqqa, in north-central Syria, in recent months.

In Iraq on Sunday, foreign minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said Iraqi intelligence had obtained information before the Paris attacks that the Islamic State was planning an imminent terrorist attack overseas that may have been targeting "in particular" France, the United States and Iran.

"We notified these countries and warned them," Jaafari said in a statement. The statement did not include specifics of when the Iraqis acquired the information. U.S. intelligence officials did not confirm the report.

Administration officials said the United States would not alter its strategy against the Islamic State in response to the Paris attacks, despite evidence that the terrorist group was expanding its ability to hit Western targets. In recent weeks, Obama has approved escalation of airstrikes in both Syria and Iraq, and authorized deployment of 50 Special Operations troops to assist Syrian Kurdish and Arab forces pushing toward Raqqa.

Officials said that, in response to Paris, the administration was seeking renewed global commitment to that intensified military action, and to a negotiated settlement of Syria’s civil war.

France’s retaliation came as Obama held talks with allied leaders and with Russian President Vladimir Putin, at the summit being held in this Turkish Mediterranean resort city.