(November 3)The French Defense Ministry issued a statement last Friday verifying reports that they had carried out a series of airstrikes with Rafale jets in northeastern Iraq that were believed to have been on ISIS tunnels in the area.
French planes based in Jordan and the UAE
There is an international coalition in what is called Operation Inherent Resolve. The French operations are part of that mission that is mounted against ISIS. The French attacks were said to have been carried out with coordination from other coalition members including Reaper drones that were provided by an unnamed member of the coalition. The US is a leading member of the group.
Although several strikes were carried out there are no reports on whether there were any casualties or damage. The French said that it was ascertained that there were no civilians in the area before the raid. According to French Defense Ministry the French have carried out 29 sorties just this week.
Operation Chammal
A recent article describing the events notes that the French attacks were under the aegis of the Enduring Freedom Operation Inherent Resolve: "The strikes were conducted on Thursday, October 31 as part of Operation Chammal, France’s contribution to Operation Inherent Resolve, the multinational Coalition military effort against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The operation was conducted jointly and coordinated with other elements of the international Coalition. The aim was to destroy several tunnels used by Daesh as a rear base for its actions, and to degrade its logistical and military capabilities in this region..This strike was prepared with our allies as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. It was preceded by reconnaissance by an Atlantic 2 maritime patrol aircraft, and was supported by a Reaper UAV from the Coalition.” "Daesh" is another term for ISIS or ISIL or the Islamic State.
In a recent US operation, the leader of ISIS Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed but the anti-ISIS coalition is anxious to make it clear that his death does not mean that the war against ISIS is over. In fact there could be revenge attacks by the group after his death.
Operation Inherent Resolve
Wikipedia describes Operation Inherent resolve and the associated task force: "Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF–OIR) is the Joint Task Force established by the US-led international coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), set up by the US Central Command to coordinate military efforts against ISIL (Da'esh), and is composed of US military forces and personnel from over 30 countries.[1][15] The stated aim of CJTF–OIR is to "degrade and destroy" ISIL.[16] Its establishment by US Central Command was announced in December 2014, after it was set up to replace the ad hoc arrangements that had previously been established to coordinate operations following the rapid gains made by ISIL in Iraq in June.[17] Formed in October 2014,[3] its first "coalition integration conference" was held the first week of December 2014.[1]...While ground forces were also deployed in various roles (special forces raids, trainers, advisers, artillery, spotters), the bulk of CJTF-OIR's combat operations took the form of an air war against the Islamic State. The countries that directly participated in this part of the campaign were the United States (accounting for 75-80% of airstrikes on its own), Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, Belgium, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.[19] By the end of 2017, CJTF-OIR stated that over 80,000 ISIL fighters had been killed by their airstrikes.[20] "
Previously published in the Digital Journal
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