France has struck two Daesh positions in Syria, a first in two years. The international anti-jihadist coalition fears that the recent fall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad could facilitate a return of the Islamic State to the region.
France has struck two positions of the Islamic State group (IS or Daesh) in Syria as part of the international anti-jihadist coalition, the French Minister of the Armed Forces said on Tuesday, the first operation of this type in two years.
“On Sunday, French air assets carried out targeted strikes against Daesh (IS in Arabic, Editor’s note) sites on Syrian soil,” Sébastien Lecornu declared on X.
“Our armies remain committed to the fight against terrorism in the Levant,” he added from Lebanon, where he is with the head of French diplomacy Jean-Noël Barrot to spend New Year’s Eve with the French soldiers of the United Nations Force (UNIFIL).
“Rafale (fighter planes) and Reaper (drones) delivered a total of seven bombs to two Daesh military objectives in central Syria,” the Ministry of the Armed Forces told AFP.
The last strike in September 2022
The last French strike on IS dated September 2022. France has participated in the international coalition Inherent Resolve since 2014 in Iraq and 2015 in Syria, through Operation Chammal deployed on bases in the region, notably in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Iraq.
It deploys some 600 men there, according to figures from the Ministry of the Armed Forces. But the system has been reinforced several times since 2015 by the naval strike group of the aircraft carrier Charles-de-Gaulle.
The fear of a return of Daesh
The fall of Bashar Al-Assad in early December was caused by a lightning offensive by Syrian rebel forces, led by a radical Sunni group. It leads to a total recomposition of Syria and also raises fears of a resurgence of the activities of IS, which historically remained very active in Iraq and Syria, even after the end of its caliphate (2014-2019).
On December 8, the day Syrian rebels captured the capital Damascus, Washington announced strikes on more than 75 IS targets.
In mid-December, the United States said it had doubled the number of its military personnel in Syria in recent months as part of the anti-jihadist fight, bringing them to around 2,000 people.
The US Central Command (Centcom) wants to ensure that ISIS “does not seek to take advantage of the situation to reconstitute itself in central Syria”.
It will now be able to intensify its strikes against IS in areas previously protected by Syrian and Russian anti-aircraft defenses. But the jihadists will take advantage of the vacuum left by the Syrian troops to maneuver more freely.
