Topic summary
Opération Chammal
Islamic StateEmmanuel Macron
(President 2017–present)
Sébastien Lecornu
(Prime Minister 2025-present)
Catherine Vautrin
(Minister of the Armed Forces 2025–present)
Fabien Mandon
(Chief of the Defence Staff 2025–present)
Jacques Langlade de Montgros
(Chief of the Army Staff 2026–present)
Christophe Cluzel
(Chief of the Naval Staff 2026–present)
Jérôme Bellanger
(Chief of the Air and Space Force Staff 2024–present)
- François Hollande
- Manuel Valls
- Édouard Philippe
- Jean Castex
- Élisabeth Borne
- Gabriel Attal
- Michel Barnier
- François Bayrou
Jean-Yves Le Drian- Sylvie Goulard
- Florence Parly
Pierre de Villiers- François Lecointre
Jean-Pierre Bosser- Thierry Burkhard
Bernard Rogel- Christophe Prazuck
- Pierre Vandier
Denis Mercier- André Lanata
- Philippe Lavigne
Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurashi (Leader of IS)Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi†Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi†Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi†Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi†Abu Ali al-Anbari†Abu Omar al-Shishani†Abu Waheeb†
Military of the Islamic State- 1 aircraft carrier (FS Charles de Gaulle)
- 2 air defence warships (FS Jean Bart, and FS Chevalier Paul)
- 30 Dassault Rafalefighters
- 6 Mirage 2000DFighter-bombers
- 9 Super-ÉtendardStrike fighters (until 2016)
- 1 E-2 Hawkeye
- 1 Breguet Atlantic
- 1 E3F AWACS
- 4 CAESAR self-propelled howitzer
- 3,200 troops (special forces operators included)
- Between 9,000 and 18,000 (U.S. intelligence estimate, January 2015)
- Between 20,000 and 31,500 (CIA estimate, September 2014)
- 7 killed
- Over 2,500 IS fighters killed by French forces between September 2014 and December 2016 (reports on casualties from 2017 onwards are scarce)
- Unknown wounded
- Over 2,000 targets (IS bases, weapons and ammunition depots, infrastructures...) destroyed by French air strikes between August 2014 and May 2017
Opération Chammal is a French military operation in Iraq and Syria launched to help curtail the expansion of the Islamic State and to support the Iraqi Army. Its name comes from the Shamal (Chammal in French), a northwesterly wind that blows over Iraq and the Persian Gulf states.
Airstrikes in Iraq began on 19 September 2014 and airstrikes in Syria by the end of September 2015. The French operation was at first limited to airstrikes and French president François Hollande had stated no ground troops would be deployed in the conflict. Additionally, the French frigateJean Bart joined the United States Navy's Commander Task Force 50 (CTF 50) as an escort.
On 14 November 2015, ISIS claimed that the terrorist attacks that took place in Paris the previous day were retaliation for Opération Chammal. In response, France decided to expand the scope of its operations against the Islamist group, leading to significant assets being deployed.