France has joined Britain in carrying out reconnaissance flights in support of the US air campaign against terrorists launched in Iraq early last month

France has joined Britain in carrying out reconnaissance flights in support of the US air campaign against terrorists launched in Iraq early last month.
  
"This very morning, the first reconnaissance flights will be carried out in agreement with the Iraqi and Emirati authorities," Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told French troops, including pilots, at the Al-Dhafra base in the United Arab Emirates.
  
Le Drian's visit to the base came as Paris prepared to host an international conference on a fight back against militants of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorist group, who have seized swathes of Iraq and neighboring Syria.
  

Iraqi President Fuad Masum Monday urged rapid air strikes against the terrorists ahead of the conference. "They need to act quickly because if there is a delay, if this campaign and this support for Iraq is delayed, maybe ISIL will occupy other territories and their threat will be even bigger," he said.

The conference has been given added urgency by the beheading of a third Western hostage, British aid worker David Haines, on Saturday.
  
Britain had already been conducting extensive surveillance flights over Iraq in support of the US from its regional base in Cyprus, but has so far held back from carrying out strikes on ISIL targets.