Off the wire
• Sri Lankan president refuses nomination for predecessor  • China keen to strengthen mutual trust, deepen cooperation with Portugal: senior official  • Logo, mascot for Asian beach games in Vietnam approved  • Chinese premier assures French firms of China's economic prospect  • U.S. willing to bolster energy relations with Lebanon  • Xinhua Asia-Pacific News Summary at 1600GMT, July 2  • Roundup: Tunisia arrests 8 prime suspects over beachhead attacks, intensive security measures taken  • Marseille signs Rekik and Ocampos  • Bangladesh receives record 15.3-bln-USD remittance in outgoing financial yr  • Germany's Bayer out of world champs for foot injury  
You are here: 　 Home

Six Belgian F-16 fighter jets return from Middle East mission

Xinhua, July 3, 2015 Adjust font size:

Six Belgian F-16s sent to the Middle East to combat the Islamic State (IS) in September 2014 returned home on Thursday.

The six fighter jets, which conducted almost 300 strikes in Iraq as part of the international coalition against the radical group IS, were sent back for budgetary reasons, the public television station RTBF reported.

The ministry of defense has no budget for Belgian air strikes in Iraq beyond June 30, 2015.

However, the Belgian government has not ruled out undertaking specific missions within the international coalition against IS, possibly alternating with the Netherlands in 2016.

Belgian political parties are divided over the results of the operation that lasted nine months. They believe, overall, that the air strikes have failed to weaken IS forces.

The six combat aircraft served by 120 Belgian soldiers were operating from a secret base near the town of al-Azraq in Jordan. Thirty Belgian instructors will remain based in Iraq to pursue an Iraqi army training mission. Endit