France launches first anti-IS airstrikes from aircraft carrier

PanARMENIAN.Net - France launched its first airstrikes from an aircraft carrier against ISIS on Monday, November 23, as French President Francois Hollande prepared to meet with world leaders in an attempt to build an anti-ISIS coalition, CNN News reports.

In Belgium, authorities charged a suspect arrested on Sunday night with participating in activities of a terrorist group in connection with the attack in Paris, Belgium's Federal Prosecutor Office said Monday. The Belgium prosecutor's office also said 15 people who were detained have been released.

French warplanes took off from the aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle, which was deployed recently in the eastern Mediterranean, and attacked ISIS targets in Syria and Iraq, said the spokesman for the Etat Major des Armées, the French Chief of Defense Staff.

With the addition of those carrier-based aircraft, France now has 38 aircraft carrying out bombing raids against ISIS, CNN correspondent Jim Bittermann said. France had already been attacking ISIS by air, but not from its carrier.

The French President prepared a diplomatic initiative to form a multi-national force to fight ISIS, the terrorist group that claimed responsibility for the November 13 attacks that left 130 dead in Paris.

Hollande will visit Washington to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday, then meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday and travel to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday.

Hollande met with British Prime Minister David Cameron earlier Monday and they agreed to a pan-European effort for stronger external EU border controls, a more effective way of screening people and greater information sharing, Cameron said.