French and US warplanes destroy IS stronghold in Iraq in two separate strikes

Baghdad: French and US warplanes launched two separate strikes to destroy “an important logistic site” of the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq, the French defence ministry said. The strikes were conducted on 29-30 April, and targeted a site used by the terrorist group to build large quantities of bombs and vehicles for suicide attacks, the ministry said on Sunday. [caption id=“attachment_2759320” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] “The site that was destroyed is situated in Al Qaim at the Iraqi-Syrian border, and it required two separate strikes because of its size,” Xinhua news agency reported citing the ministry as saying. France was the first European country to join the US-led coalition in September 2014 to strike IS militants at the request of the Iraqi government. In a previous interview with a French radio, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that an international coalition is fighting IS insurgents, trying to take back by the end of the year Mosul in Iraq and Rekka in Syria, the group’s main strongholds in the region.