Iraq crisis : France launches first air strike on Islamic State militants

France, French jets have carried out their first air strike against Islamic State militants in Iraq, successfully destroying their target.

French president Francois Hollande made the announcement, vowing that more operations would follow.

“This morning at 9:40, our Rafale planes carried out a first strike against a logistics depot of the terrorist organisation Daesh in north-east Iraq. The objective was hit and completely destroyed,” Mr Hollande’s office said in a statement, using an alternative name for the Islamic State extremist group.

“Other operations will follow in the coming days. The prime minister will inform parliament next week about the conditions of our forces’ engagement at the side of the Iraqi armed forces and the Peshmerga (Kurdish fighters) to weaken Daesh and restore Iraqi sovereignty,” the statement added.

In a dramatic announcement at a hotly awaited news conference a day earlier, Mr Hollande said France would provide what he called “aerial support” to the Iraqi army in their fight against the militant group which has taken over nearly half of the violence-ridden country.

“I decided to respond to the request of the Iraqi authorities to offer aerial support,” Mr Hollande said.

“As soon as we have identified targets, we will act … within a short time-frame.”

France has already conducted reconnaissance flights over Iraq that started on Monday and dispatched weapons to the Kurdish forces fighting the IS group.

Mr Hollande himself visited Iraq late last week – the most high-profile leader to do so since jihadists stormed across the country – and Paris hosted an international conference on the crisis on Monday.

However, unlike the United States, which has pledged to attack the Islamic State group even in Syria where they hold around a quarter of the country, Mr Hollande said French involvement would be limited to Iraq.

“We will not go further than that. There will be no ground troops and we will only intervene in Iraq,” he said.

France has six Rafale fighter jets and just under 1,000 soldiers based in the United Arab Emirates and could even mobilise an aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle.

Iraq’s most important Shiite religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, endorsed international intervention against Islamic State in the country, following US and French air strikes, but called for strict guidelines.

“Even if Iraq is in need of help from its brothers and friends in fighting black terrorism, maintaining the sovereignty and independence of its decisions is of the highest importance,” Ayatollah Sistani’s spokesman Sheikh Abdul Mehdi Karbala’i said during a Friday sermon.