France uses cruise missiles on IS targets in Syria and Iraq

France has used cruise missiles for the first time against Islamic State (IS) during strikes in Iraq yesterday, the French defence ministry has said.

Long-range Scalp missiles were launched from French fighter jets based in the UAE and Jordan as part of a bombing raid that targeted a command centre, training site and logistics depot in western Iraq on the border with Syria.

The missiles were used for the first time in Libya in 2011 strikes and cost about €850,000 each, according to the French press.

France has stepped up strikes on IS targets in Syria and Iraq after the organisation’s attacks in Paris last month that left 130 people dead.

Meanwhile, one of Germany’s most prominent Islamic extremists has been arrested on suspicion of supporting a foreign terror group. Sven Lau was arrested in western Germany yesterday, federal prosecutors said.

He is suspected of four counts of supporting the group Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar, or Jamwa, which was designated as a terrorist organisation by the US last year.

German prosecutors said Lau, 35, was the main contact for extremists wanting to fight for Jamwa in Syria. He is also suspected of providing financial and material support to the group.

Lau, a convert to Islam, made headlines last year when he tried to establish a ‘Sharia police’ in the city of Wuppertal to enforce a strict interpretation of Islam.

And two people have been arrested on suspicion of helping provide guns to the man who attacked a kosher supermarket in Paris in January.

The man and woman were arrested in northern France yesterday, nearly a year after the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and kosher store left 17 people dead, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.

The prosecutor’s office confirmed that one of those arrested is Claude Hermant, a mercenary, while the other is his partner.