PARIS
France has conducted its first air-strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant in north-eastern Iraq on Friday morning, the French Presidency office confirmed.
"This morning at 9:40 am, our air-forces conducted the first strike against a supply depot, said President Francois Hollande in a statement.
The air-strikes were aimed at "non-moving" targets such as weapon depots, the statement said, and also stated that the target was "completely destroyed, and other operations will continue in the coming days."
This first air-strike comes a day after the French president said that France would launch air-strikes in Iraq.
The French Rafale warplanes, which are based at Al-Dhafra in the United Arab Emirates, have already been conducting reconnaissance missions in Iraq since Monday.
On Thursday, at his fourth-biannual press conference since he came to power, Hollande announced he had given the green light for "air support" requested by Iraqi authorities in their fight against ISIL, but denied any intention to deploy military ground forces in Iraq.
"France is to respond positively to the Iraqi authorities by carrying out air strikes against the militants there. We will not go beyond that. There will not be ground troops and we will only intervene in Iraq," he said.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls will brief the French Parliament next week on the conditions and circumstances of the French forces joint operations with the Iraqi army and the Kurdish Peshmerga against ISIL, the statement said.
Iraq has suffered from escalating ethnic violence, which morphed into militant terror since a coalition of armed groups linked to ISIL, captured large swathes of the country's predominantly Sunni provinces in early June.
Violence instigated by ISIL militants has claimed more than 1,400 lives in August alone, and caused 1.2 million Iraqis, including Turkmen, Arabs, Christians and Ezidis, to flee their homes.
On Monday, Paris hosted an international conference on peace and security in Iraq where the leaders and officials from 29 countries met in Paris to agree to provide Baghdad with military aid to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants in Iraq.
The participants were "committed to supporting the new Iraqi government in its fight against ISIL by any means necessary, including appropriate military assistance" the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that tackling ISIL was "a matter of urgency."
On Thursday, Iraqi Vice President Ayad Allawi said that U.S. airstrikes are not enough to defeat the terrorist group ISIL.
Under a new strategy announced by the American president last week, the U.S. will lead an international coalition to carry out airstrikes against the militants throughout Iraq; however, the U.S. President Barack Obama struck an adamant tone that U.S. combat troops will not be used in Iraq to fight extremists.
www.aa.com.tr/en
