IS has previously released images of child soldiers taking part in training
An
activist group has said France's first air strike on Islamic State (IS)
militants in Syrian territory killed 30, including 12 child soldiers.
The
UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday's strike on an
IS camp in eastern Syria had also wounded about 20 fighters.
French President Francois Hollande said on Sunday six jets had destroyed the camp in the province of Deir al-Zour.
France had previously limited its strikes on IS to Iraqi airspace.
French
Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the raid had struck "an
extremely sensitive site for [IS]", describing it as a "strategic hub"
for militants travelling between Iraq and Syria.
He said the raid
was carried out in self-defence, saying that France had evidence that
foreign fighters were being trained in the camps to carry out attacks in
Europe and in France specifically.
A teenaged former fighter
told the BBC in June that he had been trained to fight for IS alongside mostly "15 and 16 year olds".
"There were even many as young as 13 or 14. Those are more eager to fight and wage jihad for the sake of God," he said.
The UN has documented the use of children in combat and support roles by both pro- and anti-government forces in Syria, as well as by Islamic State.
Islamic State has featured children in its videos from areas under its control
'Bureaucracy of horror'
Meanwhile,
on Tuesday evening French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said French
prosecutors were opening an investigation into alleged crimes against
humanity committed by the government of Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad.
The investigation will focus on a report published last
year by three former war crimes prosecutors which accused the Syrian
government of systematically torturing and executing about 11,000
detainees since the start of the uprising against Mr Assad's rule in
March 2011.
That report was based on
the evidence of a defected military police photographer,
referred to only as Caesar, who along with others reportedly smuggled
about 55,000 graphic digital images of dead detainees out of Syria.
"Faced
with these crimes which offend the human conscience, this bureaucracy
of horror... it is our responsibility to act against the impunity of
these killers," Mr Fabius said.
Title : IS conflict: French raid in Syria 'kills 12 child soldiers'
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