France Says Air Strikes Take Out Weapons Arsenal in Iraq

Paris, France: French fighter jets destroyed 12 buildings in Iraq holding an arsenal of weapons under control of Islamic State militants, France's chief of staff of armed forces said on Friday.

"Tonight we undertook a big operation in Iraq in which we destroyed buildings in which Daesh (Islamic State) was producing traps, bombs, arms to attack the Iraqi forces," Pierre de Villiers told Europe 1 radio.

France was the first country to join the US-led coalition in air strikes on IS insurgents in Iraq in September and has stepped up the pace of its air strikes this month.

Besides air strikes and reconnaissance missions, operations have also included training local Iraqi forces and delivering equipment to Kurdish fighters in the country's north.

Coalition forces dropped 70 bombs, including 12 dropped by France which completely destroyed its targets, de Villiers said, without specifying the location of the operation.