IS must be wiped out: France’s defense minister

Islamic State fighters must be wiped out, France`s defense minister said on Tuesday, indicating that Paris would not pull back from military operations overseas after 17 people were killed by home-grown militants in Paris last week.

After the United States, France has the largest number of planes and troops involved in the coalition fighting Islamic State, which last year took control of large swathes of Iraq and Syria.

It also has about 3,500 troops and Special Forces operating in the Sahel-Sahara region hunting down al Qaeda-linked militants.

France intervened in Mali to oust Islamist militants from its former colony in January 2013 and Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian noted that two years later French forces were now fighting the "same threat" on home soil.

"It is the same enemy. Our forces are on the ground here because ... for our troops it`s the same fight," Le Drian told Europe 1 radio, referring to the 10,000 soldiers being deployed across France to secure key sites following last week`s attack on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo by Islamist gunmen.

Parliament will vote later on Tuesday on whether to extend France`s military mission in Iraq, four months after its launch. In a posthumous video, one of last week`s killers cited France`s operations abroad as one reason for his actions, but there have been no major calls in France for its troops to withdraw from operations against Islamic militants.


Source. Reuters