French fighter jets bombs drop on the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa in Syria, on Sunday in a series of airstrikes as France launched a “ruthless response” to the terrorists’ attacks in Paris.
The air offensive marks a significant moment of France’s involvement in the year-long air campaign against the ISIS, the terrorist group that claims responsibility to the Paris massacre of innocent civilians.
The target of the French air strikes is Raqqa, the capital of the ISIS “caliphate”. About 20 to 30 bombs were dropped in an hour of operation, an immediate reaction of a country , embarrassed and immensely hurt by the “deadliest attack.
Since September of this year, France has been participating in the U.S. – led coalition forces in Syria against the ISIS. But according to analysts, the very recent air bombardment is not just a coincidence, it sends a clear signal to the French people – it is not backing off, it is on the offensive”. In the middle of this operation, French Defense Minister declared that France is indeed on air strikes in Syria.
Using 12 aircraft and 10 fighter jets, France targeted and destroyed the ISIS’s command and recruitment centers, its ammunition storage base and a training camp according to the press adviser for France’s defense minister.
Before the targeted air strikes, France asked helped from the U.S., which also agreed to share “all intelligence”, when previously these are only shared among the “5 eyes, the U.S. UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, CNN reported. The French airstrikes, which took off from the United Arab Emirates and Jordan was carried out in coordination with U.S. forces.
But, there were questions as to the impact of the air strikes in Raqqa, because it is difficult to assess the extent of the damage on the ground and the civilian casualties. It could be that Raqqa had anticipated the retaliation; hence, the site had been evacuated. There were claims from the ISIS media that the target sites were abandoned before the air strikes.
Regardless of whatever visible impacts the air bombardment results to, France had made sure it did justice to its great loss in Paris, by assuring the French of the country’s power to annihilate the terrorists’s wing.
