French aircraft have bombed Islamic State positions in Syria, Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu said on Tuesday, December 31, in its first such strike on the country's soil since the fall of Bashar al-Assad.

"Our armed forces remain engaged in battling terrorism in the Levant," Lecornu wrote on X, while on a New Year visit to French UN peacekeepers in Lebanon. "On Sunday, French air assets carried out targeted strikes against Daesh on Syrian soil," he added, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

The defense ministry told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that France's Rafale fighter jets and US-made Reaper drones "dropped a total of seven bombs on two military targets belonging to Daesh in central Syria."

France has belonged to the Inherent Resolve international coalition against IS since 2014, for Iraq, and 2015 for Syria. French troops involved in the operations are based in the region, including in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

As Assad's fall to a shock offensive by Syrian rebels led by a radical Sunni group rapidly reshapes the country, observers fear space could be left for IS to regather its strength. The group has survived in both Iraq and Syria despite the destruction of its so-called caliphate that lasted from 2014-19.

Washington said in mid-December that it had doubled American troop numbers fighting jihadists in Syria, to around 2,000. Its Central Command (Centcom) – responsible for the Middle East – said it wanted to ensure that IS "does not seek to take advantage of the current situation to reconstitute in central Syria." Around 2,500 US troops are also deployed in Iraq, according to Washington.