France's Rafale fighter jets have struck a training center of the Islamic State (IS) militant group overnight in Iraqi city of Kirkuk, French army's chief staff Peter de Villiers said on Friday, Xinhua reported.
As part of the coalition military offensive to halt the militants' advance, French aircraft dropped 70 bombs, of which 12 were laser-guided, to destroy 12 targets in northern Iraq in the early hours of the morning.
"We made an important operation in Iraq. We destroyed buildings where Daesh produced their traps, bombs and weapons to attack Iraqi forces," he said, adding more fighter jets would be deployed "if necessary" to crack down on the IS insurgents in Iraq.
For its Chammal operation in the conflict-torn Arab state, Paris has mobilized nine fighter jets and tanker aircraft to help destroying IS targets.
The strikes were the seventh by French jets since Sept. 19 when France joined the United States-led military offensive against the IS in Iraq who have taken major cities in the country and forced thousands to displace.
Iraqi security forces and allied tribal fighters also rebuffed an attack by the IS militants in a town near the Iraqi capital Baghdad, but were forced to withdraw from another embattled town after two days of fierce clashes in the country's western province of Anbar, security sources said on Thursday.
In the early hours of the day, IS militants carried out their third attack within the past 48 hours on the besieged town of Ameriyat al-Fallujah, some 40 km west of Baghdad, but security forces and allied local tribesmen repelled them, a source from Anbar provincial operations command told Xinhua on the condition of anonymity.
