France carried out missile strikes in Syria last weekend, targeting Islamic State positions in that country, French Defence Minister Sebastian Le Corneille announced today.

“On Sunday, French Air Force forces carried out targeted strikes against Islamic State positions on Syrian territory,” Lecorni wrote on the social media platform X.

The French airstrikes followed a similar US military strike in Syria, which the US said claimed the lives of two Islamic State members.

Syria faces an uncertain political future after the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) Islamic terrorist group overthrew former president Bashar al-Assad on December 8.

The lightning-fast attack led by the HTS ended a 13-year civil war, but raised many questions about the future of a multi-ethnic country where foreign states, including Turkey and Russia, have powerful and potentially antagonistic interests.