A week following the announcement by defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian of air strikes during the night of October 8-9 of an Islamic State camp near Raqqa, the official account remains under scrutiny.
According to defense minister, the training camp was considered a threat to France and Europe and housed “foreign fighters, many of who are likely to be French and Francophone.” He stated he would not release the names of those targeted. According to our information, the operation was mainly to target Salim Benghalem, 35, originally from Cachan and known to French intelligence services as “responsible for recruiting French and Francophones to the Islamic State.”
The American State Department had Benghalem on their blacklist of individuals and organizations suspected of terrorist intentions since September 2014 and had shared the information with France.
Several sites were identified in advance for the airstrike. The one chosen in the end was small and enclosed by a wall, posing the question as to whether it is was indeed of sufficient size to house a training camp. Furthermore, the French authorities know the identities of two other French citizens who were killed in the attack. Prime Minister Manuel Valls refused to comment.
The French army also knew the identities of two of Benghalem’s closest associates. A large number of foreigners were in the targeted base and remain unknown to foreign services. Many Francophones, notably those from Belgium and North Africa, escaped surveillance in their home countries before coming to Syria.
French authorities have justified their actions as “legitimate collective defense” in line with article 51 of the United Nations Charter. Last month, the United Kingdom claimed that it had killed two of its own citizens in Syria, using the same UN Charter article as justification.
But the director for the UN Committee against Terrorism, Jean-Paul Laborde told Le Monde that the legal consensus on the use of Article 51 in this context remains uncertain.
