France gets EU backing for military retaliation

French warplanes carried out fresh raids overnight against the Islamic State (IS) stronghold of Raqa in northern Syria for the second time in 24 hours, destroying a command centre and training centre in retaliation to the deadly attacks in Paris last week that killed at least 127 and injured many others.
“The French military has conducted an air raid against Daesh in Raqa in Syria,” its Defence Ministry said in a statement, using another name for the jihadist group.
President Francois Hollande has vowed to hit back at IS “without mercy” after Friday’s attacks in the French capital, the bloodiest on its territory.
Meanwhile, European Union defence ministers yesterday unanimously backed France’s request for help with military missions in the wake of the attacks, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said.
“France has requested aid and assistance in accordance with article 42-7. It’s an article that has never been used before in the history of our union,” Mogherini said, referring to part of the EU treaties that provides for solidarity of member states in the event one of them is attacked.
“Today the EU through the voices of all the member states unanimously expressed its strongest full support and readiness to give the assistance needed,” she said during a press conference in Brussels with French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
“France will be in contact bilaterally in coming hours and days to express the support it requires and the EU will ensure the greatest effectiveness in our common response,” former Italian foreign minister Mogherini added.
The French minister said the EU’s support was a “political act of great significance”.
Le Drian said it would “allow us in the hours to come to have bilateral talks where necessary” with other EU states to establish what help France needed. This aid could either be in support of France’s Syria airstrikes but also in other theatres, adding that France “can’t be everywhere at the same time.”
“I felt a lot of emotion from my colleagues” over the Paris attacks claimed by the Islamic State group which left 129 people dead, he said, adding that many of his counterparts had addressed him in French to pay their respects.
France’s Defence Ministry said 10 Rafale and Mirage 2000 fighters carried out the raid at 12.30am GMT (7.30am Bangkok time), dropping 16 bombs on the command and training centre. “Conducted in coordination with US forces, the raid was aimed at sites identified during reconnaissance missions previously carried out by France.”
The United States and France have also decided to increase their exchange of intelligence on potential targets.
France is set to further intensify its operations against the jihadists in Syria through the information acquired and upcoming deployment of the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, which will triple its capacity to strike.
Meanwhile, police have launched a massive manhunt for 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, one of two Belgium-based brothers implicated in the attacks. His sibling Brahim blew himself up outside a bar in Paris, seriously wounding one person.
Investigators believe Belgian jihadist Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who is based in Syria and knew Salah Abdeslam, may be the mastermind of the attacks.
Abaaoud has boasted in videos about planning attacks in Europe, and was in July
sentenced to 20 years in absentia in Belgium over a thwarted plot to murder police officers.
“We don’t know if there are accomplices in Belgium and in France... we still don’t know the number of people involved in the attacks,” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said.
Five of seven gunmen and suicide bombers killed during the attacks have already been identified.
Four of them are French nationals, and at least two of them are known to be among the hundreds of French people who have gone to fight in Syria.
The return of such radicalised, war-hardened jihadists has put a heavy strain on the security forces, who have come under the
spotlight after the second mass terror attack in 10 months.