France has fired its first airstrikes in Syria as it expands military operations against Islamic State extremists.
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France has been firing airstrikes on IS extremists in Iraq as part of the U.S.-led coalition since past year, but had resisted airstrikes in Syria because it didn’t want to strengthen President Bashar Assad.
President Francois Hollande, who spoke briefly with reporters at the United Nations, said the camp was a threat to French security and was destroyed without causing any civilian casualties.
“France has hit Syria”, the presidency said in a brief statement.
France, which has so far only taken part in strikes in Iraq, began reconnaissance flights over Syria earlier this month in order to gather information on Islamic State positions.
The president’s office reiterated on Sunday the French argument that air strikes in Syria were a question of national defense.
“This political solution requires that all stakeholders are involved”, he said.
Sunday’s air raids on the IS training camp site in the Euphrates valley lasted about five hours, the Defense Ministry said, with fighter jets – five of them Delta-winged Rafales, taking off from Jordan and the Persian Gulf, the ministry said without naming the Gulf location.
The French presidency’s statement also called for “a political transition [in Syria] that brings together elements from the regime and the moderate opposition”. But it previously held back on engaging in Syria, citing concern of playing into Assad’s hand and the need for such action to be covered by global law. France was ready to join air strikes on Assad’s forces in Syria in 2013 before U.S. President Barack Obama backed off the plan.
Hollande said there is proof that Syria was planning attacks on countries that included France and blamed the IS for Europe’s migrant crisis, the largest since World War II.
Earlier, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said France was acting in “self-defense” and had targeted IS “sanctuaries where those who attack France are trained”.
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Hollande announced on September 7 France’s intention to start airstrikes, days after the photo of a dead 3-year-old Syrian boy galvanized public concern about Syrian refugees fleeing to save their lives.
