After Paris Attacks, French Jets Pound ISIS
French fighter jets struck areas controlled by the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Syria on Sunday as European police widened investigations into a series of coordinated attacks in Paris that killed more than 130 people.
Although France has been bombing ISIS positions in Syria and Iraq as part of the U.S.-led coalition, following Friday’s bloodshed Paris has sworn to destroy the group.
ISIS has said it was behind Friday’s suicide bombings and shootings.
French warplanes Sunday launched their largest series of raids to date, mainly targeting the group’s de facto capital of Raqqa, Reuters reports.
“The raid … including 10 fighter jets, was launched simultaneously from the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. Twenty bombs were dropped,” the French Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Putin, Obama Agree on Need for Negotiations and Ceasefire in Syria
Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama have agreed on the need for U.N.-mediated negotiations and a nationwide ceasefire to put an end to violence in Syria.
Speaking briefly during a timeout from the weekend’s G20 summit in Turkey, the two leaders “agreed on the need for a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political transition, which would be preceded by U.N.-mediated negotiations between the Syrian opposition and regime as well as a ceasefire,” an anonymous White House official told AFP.
Obama and Putin “held a constructive discussion” on the need for a political solution in Syria, the official said, “an imperative made all the more urgent by the horrifying terrorist attacks in Paris.”
While “differences in tactics still remain,” according to Putin’s foreign policy advisor, Washington and Moscow share “strategic objectives” in fighting ISIS.
U.S. Delivers More Ammunition to Syrian Arab Fighters Battling ISIS
The U.S. has delivered another round of ammunition to militants fighting in the Syrian Arab Coalition against ISIS in northern Syria.
Saturday’s resupply operation marks the second time the U.S. has armed members of the Syrian Arab Coalition, a group of about 5,000 fighters from more than 10 different militant factions that is working with the Kurds to capture territory back from ISIS in Syria’s north.
Although it was not immediately clear who carried out the weapons drop, an anonymous U.S. official told Reuters that American troops did not drive them into the country.
The arming of rebel groups who operate along Syria’s border with Turkey has unnerved the Turkish government, who called in the U.S. ambassador after the first delivery of ammunition to the group on Oct. 11 over concerns that the U.S.-provided arms were aiding Syrian Kurdish militias.
Turkey, which has its own Kurdish minority, is wary of providing arms to Syrian Kurdish groups even though they have been the most effective U.S. ally in the battle against ISIS in Syria.
Recommended Reads
- Al-Monitor: Jordan Tasked With Establishing Terrorist Blacklist for Syria Talks
- Reuters: From Small French Town to Syria: The Journey of a Western Jihadi
- The Atlantic: What is France Doing in Syria?
- The Nation: France Should Stop Listening to Saudi Arabia on Syria
- Vox: Why ISIS Would Attack Paris, According to an Expert
Top image: Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrive to address the media before a meeting in Vienna, Austria, Saturday Nov.14, 2015. Foreign ministers from more than a dozen nations met for the second time in Vienna in search of a resolution to the conflict in Syria. (Leonhard Foeger/Pool Photo via AP)