France said on Friday its fighter jets destroyed 12 buildings in Iraq holding an arsenal of weapons under control of ISIL militants.

France said on Friday its fighter jets destroyed 12 buildings in Iraq holding an arsenal of weapons under control of ISIL militants.

"Tonight we undertook a big operation in Iraq in which we destroyed buildings in which Daesh (ISIL) was producing traps, bombs, arms to attack the Iraqi forces, chief of staff of armed forces Pierre de Villiers told Europe 1 radio.

France was the first country to join the US-led coalition in air strikes on ISIL insurgents in Iraq in September and has stepped up the pace of its air strikes this month.

Besides air strikes and reconnaissance missions, operations have also included training local Iraqi forces and delivering equipment to Kurdish fighters in the country's north.

Coalition forces dropped 70 bombs, including 12 dropped by France which completely destroyed its targets, de Villiers said, without specifying the location of the operation.