Carter 1st trip to aircraft carrier:

Europe

Carter

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter Saturday visited France’s Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier in the Gulf where it is being used to launch strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq, the French defence ministry said.

It was the first visit by a US Pentagon chief to the French flagship aircraft carrier, which is at the heart of a stepped-up air campaign against the jihadists in Syria and Iraq.

Carter, who visited Afghanistan on Friday and will fly to Moscow on Sunday for talks on Syria, was greeted on the deck by France’s junior minister for veterans, Jean-Marc Todeschini.

His French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian, was unable to be there but the two spoke by phone during the visit, the ministry said.

France began bombing jihadist targets in Syria in late September, with planes using bases in the region. (AFP)

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