By Ahmed Mahmoud
ABU DHABI
French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Monday that French aircraft would begin conducting reconnaissance flights over Iraq on Monday as part of an international, U.S.-led campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
Speaking to reporters and French troops at the Al-Dhafra base 30km southwest of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Le Drian said reconnaissance flights would be carried out in coordination with Iraqi and UAE authorities.
The announcement came as Paris hosts a conference on peace and security in Iraq with the aim of coordinating international efforts to fight ISIL.
Ahead of the conference, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius blamed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the emergence of the militant group, which has recently overrun large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.
A primary goal of the conference is to define the contours of the international coalition, unveiled ten days ago by the U.S. to wage "war" against the ISIL. Other challenges include finding means of drying up funding for ISIL, stemming the recruitment and flow of jihadists from around the world, and bolstering border security.
This summer, the ISIL overran large territories of both Iraq and Syria. Since early last month, the U.S. has carried out dozens of airstrikes across Iraq against sites said to be held by the militant group.
Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Iraqi government troops – backed by U.S. air support – are said to have recently made slow but steady progress in areas under the militant group's control.
www.aa.com.tr/en
