France, Russia strike Islamic State in Syria, EU aid invoked

Islamic State has claimed the responsibility for a coordinatedonslaught in Paris on Friday and the downing of a Russian charter jet over Sinai on October 31, saying they were in retaliation for French and Russian air raids in Iraq and Syria.

“We can definitely say that this is a terrorist attack”, he said.

French warplanes, operating within a U.S.-led coalition, also hit targets in Raqqa on Tuesday, targeting a command center and a recruitment center for jihadists. “Thank God, no civilians died”, he said. It had yet to post information about the Russian airstrikes that took place Tuesday, lacking more recent updates.

Dozens of Islamic State families were headed to Mosul, the northern Iraqi city that Islamic State fighters seized more than a year ago, according to Rami Abdurrahman, head of the Britain- based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks Syria’s civil war through activists on the ground. It said there were no reports of casualties so far.

The United States and its allies knew the Islamic State was planning and threatening attacks in Europe, he said, but “there has been a significant increase in the operational security of these operatives and terrorist networks as they have gone to school” on disclosures of US and allied capabilities.

The attacks may have included sea-launched cruise missiles and long-range bombers, the official said on condition of anonymity.

Islamic State has suffered setbacks in Syria and in Iraq this month. This has practically resulted in terrorist groups’ retreat from [their positions in] many areas, which allowed 1 million internally displaced persons to return safely to their homes. Outside of anecdotal accounts, damage assessment in Raqqa is inherently hard.

Khaled, who now lives in Turkey, is in touch with Raqqa residents.

Washington already expects France to retaliate by taking on a larger role in the U.S.-led coalition’s bombing campaign against ISIS. But he added: “They don’t have too much impact on ISIS’ military situation”. But he but stopped short of blaming any one group.

The French confirmed in a statement: “For the second time in 24 hours the French military conducted an air raid against Daesh in Raqqa in Syria”.

In Paris, President Francois Hollande said France would “intensify” operations in Syria.

World leaders pledged to deepen their involvement in a global campaign against the Islamic State. In the town of Atareb, according to local insurgents, a group that has been battling IS and receiving United States support was hit. Shadi said the fighters had been pressuring males as young as 15 to join them to “fight the Kurds” and, if they refuse, imposing a “tax” to be used to buy a weapon for a fighter.

Raqqa is Islamic State’s strategic depth and “if it’s undermined there, the group will also be weakened morally because of the city’s symbolism”, Abdelbaset Sieda, member of the Syrian National Coalition, the main political opposition, said by phone from Stockholm.

“We can confirm that there were no civilians killed or injured in the latest French air strikes”.