AhlulBayt News Agency - France will supply weapons to Iraq to support its fight against the ISIS group, President Francois Hollande said Friday, but ruled out any troop deployment in the country.
"This morning at the defence council, I took the decision as part of the anti-Daesh coalition to make weapons available to Iraqi forces," Hollande said, using another name for the IS group.
"They will be there next month," he said following the meeting with a handful of ministers and the heads of the security forces.
An aide to the president said the weaponry would include artillery batteries and that France would also send military advisors to train Iraqi forces in using them.
Hollande said he would also be sending the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier to the region "at the end of September".
The carrier "will allow us to intensify strikes against terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq using our Rafale jets," he said.
Hollande insisted that the move did not change the nature of France's military involvement in the region.
"We support our allies in Iraq and Syria but we are not deploying ground troops," he stressed.
"We have advice to give and training to carry out, but it is not our soldiers fighting on the ground in Syria and Iraq."
France announced a state of emergency following the Paris attack. Following the truck attack in Nice, the country extended the state of emergency for another six months lasting until the end of January 2017.
The state of emergency allows the French security forces to make, among other measures, house searches and arrests without a court order.
On July 19, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned the country of more terrorist attacks and advised the people to be prepared to “live with the threat” of terrorism. “There will be other attacks and there will be other innocent people killed,” Valls explained to the people’s representatives in parliament.
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