France Airstrikes Syria; ISIS Headquarters Bombed? US Forces Show Support!
France launched fighter jets to Raqqa, Syria to bomb ISIS headquarter on Sunday.
Two days after the ISIS terrorist attack in Paris that killed about 130 people, the French government sent out 12 aircrafts including 10 fighter jets to Syria. French President Francois Hollande acknowledged the terrorist attack as "an act of war," according to CNN.
The airstrike was launched simultaneously from Jordan and United Arab Emirates. "Twenty bombs were dropped," according to a Defense Ministry's statement reported by NBC News.
"The first target destroyed was used by ISIS as a commanding post," the ministry added. "A jihad recruitment center and a depot for arms and munitions. The second target housed a terrorist training camp," the statement continued.
The airstrike counter attack was discussed by Jean-Yves Le Drain, the France defense minister, and United States Defence Secretary, Ash Carter, through a phone call on Saturday and Sunday.
President Hollande said that the terrorist attack was "to scare us and fill us with dread" but also alerted that the country's counter attack to ISIS will be steadfast. "We are going to lead a war which will be pitiless," he said according to The Guardian.
"Because when terrorists are capable of committing such atrocities they must be certain that they are facing a determined France, a united France, a France that is together and does not let itself be moved, even if today we express infinite sorrow," he added.
A member of an activist group called Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently released an information that the terrorists have already evacuated the area and had expected an airstrike retaliation from France. ISIS media agency, Amaaq said that there were no civilian casualties reported within the area during the air attack but reports have not yet confirmed, according to CNN.
U.S President Barack Obama has also escalated the situation to Syria and Iraq operations and granted 50 special operations troops to reinforce Arab and Syrian Kurdish forces fighting the terrorists on the ground, according to The Guardian.
President Obama had been building a legacy to stop America's war but on the other hand also wants to stop terrorism. The U.S President referred the killings as "an attack on the civilized world" and pledged to "stand in solidarity" along with French forces to take down ISIS, which he said after a meeting with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoga, reported by Los Angeles Times.
