France has carried out its first offensive against the Islamic State as Paris struggles to get back on its feet after multiple gun and bomb attacks went off across the city on Friday night local time, killing a confirmed 129 people.

Twenty bombs were dropped by French fighter jets on IS’ de facto capital in Syria, the city of Al-Raqqah, on Sunday evening local time. Raqqa is located approximately 160km from Aleppo and was captured by ISIL forces in March 2013 during the Syrian Civil War.

The simultaneous air strikes were launched from the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, in conjunction with U.S. forces.

“The first target destroyed was used by Daesh (another Arabic acronym for IS) as a command post, jihadist recruitment centre and arms and munitions depot,” the French defence ministry said in a statement.

“The second held a terrorist training camp.”

The raid comes two days after IS claimed responsibility for the coordinated terror attacks that targeted seven locations in Paris, including the Stade de France, Bataclan concert hall, and various restaurants and bars.

It is the second attack on Raqqa in the span of just a few days. On Nov. 13, U.S. forces had conducted air strikes on the city, targetting British citizen Mohamed Emwazi, also known as Jihadi John.

Emwazi is known for participating in the videos showing the murders of U.S. journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley, U.S. aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, and a number of other hostages.

The attack was part of Operation Inherent Resolve, a U.S.-led campaign against ISIL terrorists in Syria and Iraq. Coalition nations conducting strikes in Syria include the United States, Bahrain, Canada, France, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and recently, Australia.

French President Francois Hollande, who was evacuated from the Stade de France after a bomb went off at one of the gates on Friday night, called the Paris attacks an “act of war”. He also publicly vowed to be “merciless” in France’s retaliation towards “the barbarians of Islamic State group”.

Authorities hunt for Belgian suspect, detain six in France

Meanwhile Belgium has issued a warrant for a 26-year-old Belgian-born man, Salah Abdeslam, who is believed to be the eighth attacker of the coordinated terror plot. Seven others have been arrested after raids in Brussels earlier on Sunday local time, reports Reuters.

Abdeslam reportedly drove a group of gunmen who had taken hostages and killed over 90 people inside the Batclan concert hall in a black Volswagen Polo. It is believed two of his brothers were also involved in the attacks, with one dying during the attack and another detained by police in Belgium.

At this stage, it is believed Salah is the only attacker to still be alive, reports the ABC. Seven attackers were killed on Friday night, either by police forces or suicide bombs.

French police have also arrested at least six people, including Omar Ismail Mostefai's father, brother and sister-in-law. The body of 29-year-old French national Mostefai was found at the Bataclan music hall after he reportedly detonated his suicide bomb vests along with two other gunmen when police entered.

Mostefai was later identified by French investigators via a fingerprint from his severed finger found at the site.

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