The French army on Sunday bombed an oil supply centre held by the Islamic State (IS) group in eastern Syria, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced on Monday.
"We intervened in Syria... yesterday evening with a strike on an oil supply centre near Deir Ezzor on the border between Iraq and Syria," Le Drian told journalists on the sidelines of a forum on African peace and security in Dakar, Senegal.
Earlier this month, French President François Hollande announced the deployment of the Charles de Gaulle, France's only aircraft carrier, in the fight against the IS group in Iraq and Syria. The French carrier had previously been deployed in the Persian Gulf from February to April this year, conducting between 15 and 20 flights per day, according to the French military.
France also has 12 jet fighters based in the United Arab Emirates and Jordan involved in the operations.
New defence ministry
The French president inaugurated a massive new defence ministry complex on the outskirts of Paris last week, complex with walls designed to withstand a missile strike and a highly secure operational room hidden underground.
France's new defence ministry building aims to bring together the army, air force and navy headquarters in order to make it easier to coordinate France's military operations abroad. About 9,300 military and civil staff who were previously dispersed around a dozen different sites are now based in the 4.2 billion euro building ($4.6 billion), dubbed the "French Pentagon."
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