In first, Dutch jets bomb IS targets in Syria

Dutch F-16 fighter jets have bombed Islamic State targets for the first time in Syria since broadening its mission in the US-led air campaign, the Defense Ministry says on Tuesday.

“Dutch F-16s carried out around 10 missions over Iraq and eastern Syria,” the Hague-based ministry says in its weekly summary of operations on its website.

It is the first time the summary has mentioned targets in Syria since the Dutch government late last month announced it was fanning out its current air support mission over Iraq into Syria, in the wake of US and French requests.

The airstrikes were directed against “combat positions, military equipment and strategic aims of the IS terror organization,” the ministry says, without detailing when and where the attacks took place.

— AFP