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IN PICS: France boosts campaign against Isis

The Local France/AFP
The Local France/AFP - [email protected]
IN PICS: France boosts campaign against Isis
French naval technicians working on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Charles-de-Gaulle. Photo: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP.

France's biggest aircraft carrier is on its way to the eastern Mediterranean as part of efforts to amp up operations in Syria in the wake of the Paris attacks.

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The French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle steamed ahead out of the southern port of Toulon on Wednesday towards the eastern Mediterranean, prepared to bolster France's campaign against Isis.
 
The French presidency said earlier this month that it would deploy the aircraft carrier to boost airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, but now the country has renewed conviction to fight the jihadist group following the attacks in Paris on Friday.
 
President François Hollande vowed to crush Isis and called the coordinated attacks that killed 129 people "acts of war."
 

Aircraft carrier Charles-de-Gaulle leaves the southern French port of Toulon on Wednesday. Photo: Boris Horvat/AFP.
 
The presence of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the flagship of the French navy, will add to the six Rafale jets stationed in the United Arab Emirates and the six Mirages flying out of Jordan.


A French flag flies above French naval technicians working on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Charles-de-Gaulle at a military port in the southern French city of Toulon. Photo: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP.

The Charles de Gaulle did a two-month stint in the Gulf from February, from where strikes against Isis in Iraq were carried out, before returning to its base in the French port of Toulon.

France launched air strikes against the jihadists in Syria in October, after a year of bombing Isis in Iraq, saying it was acting in self defence.


Photo: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP.

A monitoring group said on Wednesday that French-Russian airstrikes had killed at least 33 jihadists from Isis in Raqqa, Syria.

Since beginning operations in Iraq, French fighter jets have carried out more than 1,200 aerial missions the destruction of at least 450 targets.


Photo: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP.

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