Fighters taking off from the carrier have “tripled France’s capacity to strike IS in Syria and Iraq”, a presidential source said. Since the Paris attacks, it has stepped up its aerial bombing campaign of Islamic State in Syria, focussing especially on its stronghold in Raqqa and oil-related targets.
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French President Francois Hollande visited the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle off the Syrian coast Friday.
Germany will also contribute a frigate and up to 1,200 troops, although only a few hundred are likely to be involved at first.
France was the first European country that joined US-led global coalition fighting the IS in Syria and Iraq.
The two leaders spoke by phone, with Hollande congratulating Cameron on winning a recent vote in the British parliament to start bombing IS targets in Syria, the French presidency said.
An opinion poll in Die Welt newspaper Friday showed 58 percent backing for the deployment while 37 percent were against.
Two German Tornados and a tanker are expected to be sent to Turkey’s Incirlik air base next week but won’t be fully operational until next month.
The carrier, which has 30 planes and four helicopters on board, was deployed to the eastern Mediterranean just days after Islamic State claimed responsibility for attacks in Paris that killed 130 people on November 13.
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“The Bonne Biere cafe was a place where people meet and exchanged and shared”.
