French fighter jets launched their biggest raids in Syria to date, targeting the Islamic State’s stronghold in Raqqa just two days after the group claimed coordinated attacks in Paris that killed more than 130 people, the defence ministry said.“The raid … including 10 fighter jets, was launched simultaneously from the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. Twenty bombs were dropped,” the statement said, adding that the mission had taken placeon Sunday evening.The operation, carried out in coordination with US forces, struck a command centre, recruitment centre for jihadists, a munitions depot, and a training camp for fighters. The sites targeted had previously been identified on reconnaissance flights, the statement said. A defence official was quoted by Associated Press as saying the strikes were “massive” and had destroyed two jihadi sites in Raqqa. Hollande, who has declared a state of emergency, met visiting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday to press his call for the U.S.-led and Russian-led coalitions to join forces. While IS is indeed a global threat — as the attacks in recent days, from Paris to Beirut, have shown — the international community needs to review its response to fighting the terrorist entity. For example, beyond fulfilling the immediate thirst for retribution, what long-term effects will the French military action have on weakening and eliminating IS?After all, the waters of Syria have already been quite muddied by foreign intervention; as mentioned, the Americans have been leading a coalition bombing IS since September 2014, while the Russians entered the Syrian theatre some months ago on the call of the Damascus regime to also target the self-declared caliphate. Will the French effort add to the effectiveness of these actions? Instead of working at cross purposes, major regional and global powers need to combine forces and, more importantly, work with the Syrian and Iraqi governments to uproot IS.
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