French Military Says Coalition Opposed IS Withdrawal from Raqqa

France's military said on Thursday the coalition battling Islamic State in Syria had opposed a deal allowing fighters of the militant group to withdraw from their former bastion of Raqqa, reported Reuters. 

The coalition had also been unable to launch air strikes against the fighters because they had mingled with civilians, French army spokesman Patrik Steiger said.

 A report by BBC television on Sunday said some 4,000 people, including hundreds of foreign nationals, had been evacuated from Raqqa as part of the agreement and spread across Syria and as far as Turkey.

Ankara on Tuesday said it was appalled by the approach of the U.S. Department of Defense toward the agreement, struck between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) -- a U.S.-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias -- and Islamic State.

 "The coalition was not ... for this agreement which enabled Islamic State terrorists to escape without being chased," Steiger told reporters in a weekly briefing.

"It (the convoy) was monitored by drones, (but) the terrorists were mixed in with the population which prevented air strikes being carried out."

France has contributed to strikes against the jihadist group in Syria and has special forces operating in the Raqqa region.

Coordinated attacks planned by militants in Raqqa in Paris in November 2015 were the deadliest on French soil since World War Two, killing more 130 people.

With Islamic State losing ground in Iraq and Syria, hundreds of French citizens belonging to Islamic State - and in some cases their children - have started to return to France, officials there say.

The BBC report showed one witness claiming that French jihadis were among those allowed to leave Raqqa in mid-October and one suspected militant was...