CHARLES DE GAULLE JOINS WAR ON ISLAMIC STATE

The French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle has joined the war on Islamic State.

But why?

France announced sending the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier for use in military operations against the Islamic State in Iraq in mid-January. The decision was made in the wake of the deadly Paris attacks, when Islamist gunmen killed 17 people at the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket.

French President Francois Hollande told military personnel back then that the Charlie Hebdo massacre “justifies the presence of our aircraft carrier.”

France joined the US-led coalition carrying out air strikes against IS militants in Iraq in September. It has declined to participate in the aerial campaign against the group in Syria, where the government of President Bashar Assad has condemned the attacks on Syrian territory.

[source : France deploys aircraft carrier against ISIS in Iraq - ministry, RT, http://rt.com/news/234647-france-deploys-aircraft-carrier/, 23rd February 2014]

So although France had declared that it was joining the war on Islamic State in September last year it had done very little about it, and was in fact showing signs of some independence from NATO in supporting Palestinian independence and suggesting that the sanctions on Russia be stopped.

But all that changed after the suspicious Charlie Hebdo attack...