Bahrain’s role in U.S.-led raids on ISIS ‘not symbolic:’ FM

Bahrain’s participation in the airstrikes on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) “is not symbolic,” but rather “essential,” Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa told Al Arabiya on Thursday.

Speaking to Al Arabiya’s New York bureau chief in New York Talal al-Haj Al Khalifa said Bahrain participated with more than two fighter jets.

On Thursday the Pentagon said that 10 Arab jets and six U.S. planes carried out the strikes in Syria.

The Pentagon added that jets from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates played the leading role in the latest round of air strikes in Syria against ISIS.

The Bahraini top diplomat said the airstrikes targeted ISIS militants, without ruling the possibility of unintended civilian casualties in the future. “No military operation can avoid civilian causalities 100 percent.”

The foreign minister said there are reports of several Bahraini militants fighting with ISIS in both Iraq and Syria, stressing that the authorities are carefully monitoring them and they will be arrested if they return back to the Kingdom.

On Thursday, France carried out a second round of air strikes in Iraq, government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said, as British Prime Minister David Cameron urged parliament to approve joining the international airstrikes against ISIS.