France has joined the military action in Syria following President Bashar al-Assad’s overthrow on December 8. Currently, the hardline Islamist movement Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS) controls Damascus and major cities in southern, central, and coastal Syria.
The Turks control parts of the north near the border, with Turkey’s proxies, particularly the Syrian National Army (SNA), while the United States still occupies the northeast through its proxy, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Israeli military holds territory in the Golan Heights in the south.
The French defense ministry announced that its warplanes conducted airstrikes against Islamic State (ISIS) over the weekend.
This marks the first French strikes in Syria since HTS took control of Damascus:
“On Sunday, French air assets carried out targeted strikes against Daesh sites on Syrian soil,” the minister said in a statement on social platform X, using an Arab acronym for ISIS. He also published a video showing the military operation. “Our armies remain engaged in the fight against terrorism in the region,” Lecornu said.
French Rafale fighter jets and American Reaper drones “dropped a total of seven bombs on two military targets belonging to Daesh in central Syria,” the statement specified.
The Pentagon has cited the ‘ISIS threat’ as a justification for keeping American troops in Syria. The occupation of Syria’s oil and gas fields has also been linked to countering Iran, according to US officials.
However, ISIS has been relatively quiet since HTS took over the country. It is known that ISIS terrorists are embedded with HTS and its foreign fighter affiliates.
The French government released footage of preparations for its weekend strikes on ISIS targets.
ISIS remains a threat that justifies the presence of Western allies in Syria, even as they support HTS in Damascus.
US-designated terrorist Abu Mohammad al-Julani began his jihadist career in Syria as a member of ISIS and later al-Nusra Front (Al-Qaeda in Syria).
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