France assassinated its own citizens in attacks on Islamic State – report

France has assassinated some of its own citizens in targeted killings on the Islamic State and other jihadist groups, and each of the attacks was approved by French President Francois Hollande, Israel Radio reported Thursday.

Citing the French daily Le Monde which gained access to unpublished, relevant documents, the radio station said that strikes killed eight IS commanders who were French citizens in Syria and Iraq. Another five French jihadists have been killed in central Africa.

According to Le Monde, Hollande green-lighted each of the missions, which were mostly carried out by the French Air Force.

France is one of the nations participating in the US-led coalition against the IS, which seized large areas of Syria and Iraq in recent years and then imposed a brutal interpretation of Islamic law on local people.

In total, France was behind 40 targeted killings that have not been publicized. Most of those on France’s hit list were killed in US drone strikes.

Hollande has admitted that intelligence in not always clear about who is in a building or vehicle that is targeted.

In some cases, missions have been called off due to concerns that innocent civilians might be harmed.

An autumn 2015 attack on a building in Raqqa, Syria used to train terrorists for attacks in Europe was canceled because noncombatants might have been killed. The target was Belgium-Moroccan terrorist Abdelhamid Abaaoud, believed to be the ringleader of the November 12, 2015, coordinated attacks in Paris that killed 120 people.

It later transpired that at the time the strike was planned Abaaoud was already in Europe. He was killed on November 18, 2015, in a shootout with French police in Saint-Denis in the followup to the Paris attacks.