BAGHDAD: France said yesterday that it will follow the United States in launching air strikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq.
The French move came as Washington was set to approve plans to train and arm Syrian rebels in the fight against IS, which has gained more ground in recent days.
President Francois Hollande underlined that there would be no French air strikes against IS targets in Syria like those that his US counterpart Barack Obama authorised last week.
“I decided to respond to the request of the Iraqi authorities to offer aerial support,” Hollande told reporters.
“We will not go further than that. There will be no ground troops and we will only intervene in Iraq.”
The US has carried out 174 air strikes against IS in Iraq since early August, and Obama last week authorised their expansion to neighbouring Syria.
France began reconnaissance flights over Iraq on Monday from a base in the United Arab Emirates.
Britain too has conducted surveillance flights but has so far held back from launching strikes.
The US Senate was expected to back a plan, approved by the House of Representatives, to train and equip anti-jihadist rebels in Syria, a key part of Obama’s strategy against IS.
Who exactly will benefit from the programme is unclear, as the rebels battling President Bashar Al Assad lack a clear command structure and range from secular nationalists to Al Qaeda-backed extremists.
But Obama hailed the House approval as “an important step forward”, and Senate leaders are confident it will pass Thursday for his signature. Obama met military commanders on Wednesday and, in a speech at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, insisted the jihadists will be defeated.
“Our reach is long. If you threaten America, you will find no safe haven. We will find you eventually,” Obama said, also standing firm on his pledge that a US ground combat mission is not on the cards.
IS holds significant territory in Syria and seized large areas of Iraq in a lightning offensive in June, declaring a cross-border “caliphate” and imposing its brutal interpretation of Islamic law.
It has carried out widespread atrocities including crucifixions and reportedly selling women into slavery, and in recent weeks beheaded two US reporters and a British aid worker in chilling online videos.
The US estimates that IS has 20,000 to 31,000 fighters, including many foreigners, and there are concerns that returning jihadists could carry out attacks in Western countries.
Australia said it had detained 15 people in connection with a plot to behead random civilians, in the country’s largest ever counter-terrorism raids.
But analysts at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) warned against overestimating the IS threat, saying that Al Qaeda’s global network was still the bigger danger worldwide.
“Despite its spectacular acts of violence, including against Westerners, (IS’s) short- and medium-term objectives appear to be local and transnational rather than global,” the London-based think-tank said.
Analyst Emile Hokayem told a news conference: “We shouldn’t exaggerate its potency. It is a very serious security threat to the region — as a global threat it’s still limited.”AFP
