French Aircraft Carrier Sails for Syria, To Triple France’s Capacity To Attack

The French nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier will leave the port of registration on November 19 to join the operation in Syria, French President Francois Hollande told the French parliament’s emergency meeting in Versailles on Monday. The mission consists in defense. “The Charles de Gaulle is an aircraft carrier that is protected by a number of ships, including French and British ones”, Vandeput said on RTBF television.

“France, with a total of 38 fighters, will be able to “intensify its operations in Syria”, Hollande said following Friday’s deadly attacks in Paris”.

The West hasn’t had an aircraft carrier in the region since USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) left last month and its replacement – departing Monday from the East Coast – USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) isn’t due to arrive to continue the anti-ISIS strikes until next month.

France launched air strikes against the jihadists in Syria in October, after a year of bombing Isis in Iraq, saying it was acting in self defence.

Daesh terrorists, who were initially trained by the Central Intelligence Agency in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the government in Damascus, now control parts of Syria and Iraq. The IS-led high-profile onslaught killed 129 people and left hundreds of others injured in the French capital. “There will be no respite and no truce”, Hollande added. France is at war… “We are in a war against jihadist terrorism that threatens the entire world”, pledged Hollande. “We did it already in the past, we have conducted new airstrikes in Raqqa, [Syria] today”, France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. “One can not be attacked harshly, and you know the drama that is happening in Paris, without being present and active”.