Government spokesman highlights risks to citizens who travel to Iraq to fight for extremist group
May 31, 2017
PARIS—A French government spokesman Wednesday said fighters who travel overseas to join Islamic State are taking risks, as he responded to a question regarding a Wall Street Journal article on secret French operations to kill French jihadists.
The Journal story, published Monday, said French special forces are working with Iraqi soldiers to hunt and kill French nationals who have joined the senior ranks of Islamic State. The names and photographs of as many as 30 men identified as high-value targets have been distributed to Iraqi authorities by French special forces.
France’s special forces maintain their distance from the killings by directing Iraqi fighters to target French Islamic State fighters, according to current and former French government advisers.
At the government’s weekly news briefing, a reporter asked Christophe Castaner if France views its citizens who join Islamic State as “enemy combatants,” who can therefore be targeted for assassination.
“I say to all the fighters who join (Islamic State) and who travel overseas to wage war: Waging war means taking risks,” said Mr. Castaner. “They are responsible for those risks.”
In the Journal article, a current and a former foreign-affairs adviser to the French government said the motive for the secret operation is to ensure that French nationals with allegiance to Islamic State never return home to threaten France with a terror attack. France has been the target of several deadly attacks either inspired by Islamic State or orchestrated from the militants’ Middle East strongholds, including the November 2015 Paris strikes.
A French Ministry of Defense spokeswoman Monday declined to comment on the operation.
‘Waging war means taking risks. They are responsible for those risks.’
Iraqi government officials said their military doesn’t participate in systematic extrajudicial killing of Islamic State fighters, and any such cases would be investigated for possible prosecution.
A spokesman for Iraq’s Justice Ministry declined to say whether the government has any foreign Islamic State fighters in custody. Iraqi commanders have said most militants fight to the death.
An estimated 1,700 Frenchmen have joined the militants in Iraq and Syria, according to the Soufan Group, a New York-based organization that researches extremism. French government officials have estimated that hundreds of those men have either died in battle or returned home.