French aircraft have bombed Islamic State positions in Syria, the country’s defence minister Sebastien Lecornu has announced.
The strikes are the first on Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad- who has fled to Russia.
“Our armed forces remain engaged in battling terrorism in the Levant,” Lecornu posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, while on a New Year visit to French UN peacekeepers in Lebanon.
“On Sunday, French air assets carried out targeted strikes against Daesh on Syrian soil,” he added, using the Arabic name for IS.
The defence ministry told AFP that France’s Rafale fighter jets and US-made Reaper drones “dropped a total of seven bombs on two military targets belonging to Daesh in central Syria”.
France has belonged to the Inherent Resolve international coalition against IS since 2014 for Iraq and 2015 for Syria.
French troops involved in the operations are based in the region, including in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
As Assad’s fall to a shock offensive by Syrian rebels led by a radical Sunni group rapidly reshapes the country, observers fear space could be left for IS to regather its strength.
The group has survived in both Iraq and Syria despite the destruction of its so-called caliphate that lasted from 2014-19.
Washington said in mid-December that it had doubled American troop numbers fighting jihadists in Syria, to about 2,000.
Its Central Command – responsible for the Middle East – said it wanted to ensure that IS “does not seek to take advantage of the current situation to reconstitute in central Syria”.
