PARIS, October 20 (RIA Novosti) – The French Air Force has conducted its third series of airstrikes against the Islamic State (IS) on Iraqi territory, destroying two vehicles, the French Ministry of Defense said in a Monday press release.
"On October 19 during the course of a mission supporting Iraqi ground troops, two Rafaele [aircraft] destroyed two 'pick-ups' of the Daesh [the IS] terrorist group, the statement read.
The ministry added that the vehicles were spotted and destroyed by French jets during a reconnaissance mission near the city of Tikrit, 112 miles north of the capital Baghdad.
The IS, locally known as Daesh, an Arabic acronym standing for the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, is a jihadist group which has seized vast areas across Iraq and Syria and proclaimed an Islamic caliphate on the territories it controls in June.
US President Barack Obama ordered airstrikes against the insurgents in Iraq back in August. In September, he extended the airstrikes to Syria and announced the creation of a broad international coalition to combat the terrorists.
The same month, France joined in the airstrikes on Iraqi territory. Paris has also sent arms and military instructors to Iraqi Kurdistan in order to help the Kurdish Peshmerga militia withstand the IS advance.
