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AN OFFICIAL FROM France’s Ministry of Defence has described as “massive” a series of airstrikes launched tonight on the Islamic State group’s de facto capital in Syria.
In an official statement tonight, the ministry said that the strikes on Raqqa involved 12 aircraft, including 10 fighter jets, and 20 bombs were dropped.
On Facebook, the French Army posted video of some of the fighter jets departing on their mission, and announced:
Tonight, at 7.50 pm and 8.25 pm (6.50 pm and 7.25 pm Irish time), a dozen French aircraft from the Chammal force struck and destroyed, in an air raid, an ISIS command centre and training camp in Raqqa, Syria.
A longer statement from the Defence Ministry said tonight’s operation had been launched from Jordan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The air raid was made up of 12 French aircraft, 10 of them fighter jets, which were simultaneously launched from the UAE and Jordan. Twenty bombs were dropped.
Planned in advance by French reconnaissance missions, this operation was conducted in cooperation with American forces.
The first destroyed target was used by ISIS as a command post, jihadi recruitment centre and arms and munitions depot.
The second was home to a terrorist training camp.
Speaking from the site of Friday’s Bataclan theatre siege, in which some 80 people were killed, French President Francois Hollande vowed that his country’s response would be “without mercy.”
According to French newspaper Le Figaro, the country’s Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian spoke twice by phone today with his American counterpart Ashton Carter.
In what has been called a “turning-point” in the two nations’ cooperation in the battle against ISIS, the two men reportedly agreed on a number of “concrete measures.”
This will include enhanced intelligence sharing and an intensification of strikes on strategically valuable ISIS targets – including training camps, command centres, and oil infrastructure, which is a crucial source of financing for the group.
Contains reporting by the Associated Press.
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DSK out of jail and Teresa Treacy is still locked up in Mountjoy.
Something is wrong with society.
Please sign the petition for Ms Treacys’ release.
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/free-teresa-treacy-the-woman-who-stood-up-to-eigrid-an.html
Hi Conor
Excuse my ignorance but I hadn’t heard/read anything. Is there a link I can read about what’s going on?
Agreed. A travesty that the courts should jail this woman.
Hi Dave,
Try this link. http://ow.ly/6xWEC
I’d say there is a lot of info if you google Teresa Treacy
its a disgrace that u spent thousand on buyin a property yet the law will allow an institution like the esb to come and cut down ur trees and plonk wot ever they want on ur property regardless and then the gov want u to pay property tax on top of the stamp duty that u over paid for the property
I didn’t let the esb cut my trees…..I ran them out of my garden and told them not to return….they didn’t!
I find that one about restaurants losing money fairly bewildering…restaurants didn’t lose anything because they charge for the meal regardless! The only loser is the punter as they pay for food that they don’t eat; that’s their choice though!
It means that the restaurant could have given the customer less food and still charged the same amount. Therefore their margin wasn’t as high as it could have been.
as a former head chef i found when i moved to ireland from the u.k that people here expected a much larger portion of food than i was used to serving… especially vegetables and potato’s, the irish people always seemed to me to have a very good appitite and a healthy balance of meat, fish and veg’s, maybe that was because we were in a rural setting and the majority of our guests were from large families and hardworking backgrounds. i always found that the more ‘upmarket’ the dish was the less it appealed to the palette, yet a nice roast joint of beef or darne of salmon would always be eaten in full,. maybe restaurants are trying to be too posh and forgetting the basics ,thats why people leave most of the food.
have your say