The French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle will be operational in the eastern Mediterranean “by the end of the week”, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told parliament on Wednesday.
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Aircraft carrier Charles-de-Gaulle leaves the southern French port of Toulon on Wednesday.
The 38,000t, nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle will set off on Thursday for the eastern Mediterranean.
The carrier’s deployment “is going to triple our military power [as part of the operation against the Islamic State]”, Hollande said.
France has already intensified its aerial bombardment in Syria shortly after the Paris incident.
France launched air strikes against the jihadists in Syria in October, after a year of bombing Isis in Iraq, saying it was acting in self defence. “[Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad can not be part of the solution in Syria”.
The West hasn’t had an aircraft carrier in the region since USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) left last month and its replacement – departing Monday from the East Coast – USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) isn’t due to arrive to continue the anti-ISIS strikes until next month.
At least 132 people were killed and 350 others injured after assailants struck several different venues in the French capital late on Friday.
President Francois Hollande declared a state of emergency in the country and closed the state borders.
“France is at war”, Hollande told parliamentarians.
In a sombre speech Hollande said he would call on the UN Security Council to pass a new resolution to “destroy Daesh [Isis]”, describing Syria as “the biggest terrorist factory the world has ever seen”.
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“It was normal to take the initiative and action and France had the legitimacy to do so”.
