Firepower

France Launches First Iraq Airstrikes

To help fight ISIS.

Just hours after announcing that it had agreed to conduct airstrikes in Iraq, French fighter jets struck a logistics depot controlled by ISIS on Friday morning. It was “entirely destroyed,” announced the French president’s office, which declared that “other operations will follow in the coming days.” That attack made France the first country to publicly aid the U.S. militarily. The U.S. has so far conducted 176 airstrikes in Iraq since Aug. 8. President Francois Hollande insisted that the French government would not go beyond airstrikes, and would not attack targets in Syria, where ISIS extremists also have seized territory. Hollande said he approved the strikes during a meeting with his top defense and security advisers on Thursday.