French warplanes bombed a communications hub for the so-called ’Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL) takfiri group near Mosul in northern Iraq overnight.

French warplanes bombed a communications hub for the so-called 'Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant' (ISIL) takfiri group near Mosul in northern Iraq overnight, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Thursday.

"Last night we bombed a Daesh telecommunications centre, a propaganda centre, near Mosul," Le Drian told BFMTV, using an Arabic acronym for ISIL.

"We have struck seven times since Monday," Le Drian said of the French bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria.

"Daesh is pulling back in Iraq" where it has lost control of the cities of Sinjar and Ramadi, Le Drian said.

ISIL terrorists seized Raqa in Syria in early 2014 and declared it the capital of their self-declared caliphate. In June the same year, they seized Mosul.

Another major Iraqi city, Ramadi, fell in May 2015 but local Iraqi forces - backed by coalition air support and troop training -- recaptured the town at the end of last month in what was seen as a major blow for the terrorists.

Sinjar was recaptured in November with the help of Kurdish forces.

Defence ministers from the seven countries taking part in the anti-ISIL coalition - France, the United States, Australia, Germany, Italy, Britain and the Netherlands - will meet in Paris on January 20 to discuss their military strategy.