Opération Chammal

Opération Chammal is the name of the military operation which is currently ongoing in Iraq to contain the expansion of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and to support the Iraqi Army. Its name comes from the Shamal (Chammal in French), a northwesterly wind blowing over Iraq and the Persian Gulf states. The operation is limited to airstrikes, French president François Hollande reiterated that no ground troops would be used in the conflict. The French frigate FS FRENCH FRIGATE Jean Bart has joined the US CTF 50 as an escort.

Background
On 10 June, the terrorist group of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and several other Sunni insurgents took control of the second most populous city of Iraq, Mosul. ISIS carried lots of battles against the Iraqi Army, seizing cities and committing mass murder crimes and massacres. The most prominent massacres are the Persecution of Assyrians, the Persecution of Yazidis and the Camp Speicher massacre, killing about 2,000 innocent people. Until August, ISIS had controlled almost one-third of Iraq.

On 7 August, US President, Barack Obama, authorized airstrikes in Iraq. A day after the authorizing, the US Air Force launched airstrikes targeting the ISIS fighters, with the humanitarian aid support from the United Kingdom and France. On 10 September, Barack Obama outlines plans to expand the US operations to include Syria.

Air strikes
On 18 September, the United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, announced in front of the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs in the United States House of Representatives that President François Hollande had announced that he authorized airstrikes in Iraq, in response to a request by the Iraqi government.

On 19 September, the French Air Force carried out their first airstrike using two Rafale jets armed with GBU-12 Paveway II, beginning the French intervention. It conducted the airstrikes on an ISIS depot in Mosul, dropping 4 GBU-12 bombs. Hollande's office said that the ISIS depot that was targeted was hit and completely destroyed. The airstrikes resulted in killing 75 fighters from the Islamic State. A spokesman of the Iraqi military, Qassim al-Moussawi, stated that four French airstrikes had hit the town of Zumar, killing dozens of militants.

On 21 September, two Rafale jets provided air support for the Iraqi Army near Baghdad in a reconnaissance mission. A day after, France conducted another reconnaissance mission over Mosul with two Rafale jets. Another reconnaissance mission conducted on 23 September. On 24 September, two reconnaissance and dynamic targeting missions were conducted in Mosul and Baghdad, supporting the Iraqi forces.

On 25 September, while in a reconnaissance mission, two Rafale jets conducted France's second airstrike after the jets received information about targets near them by the Coordination air operation center, a day after the beheading of the French hostage, Hervé Gourdel, by the Jund al-Khilafah terrorist group in Algeria. Stéphane Le Foll said "This morning [France] carried out airstrikes on the territory of Iraq." The jets destroyed 4 warehouses of ISIS near Fallujah. French/American jets conducted airstrikes at night in Kirkuk, killing 15 ISIS fighters and injuring 30.

Two reconnaissance missions were conducted by two Rafale jets and an Atlantique 2 over Ninawa Province on 26 September.