France voted Tuesday to extend its role in an international coalition that has been dropping bombs on Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, reports The Washington Times.
French lawmakers voted 488 to 1 to continue participating in airstrikes over Iraq.
The vote comes just after a complex terrorist operation has rocked the country, killing 11 people at the offices of French magazine Charlie Hebdo, two police oifficers and four people in a kosher grocery. The man responsible for killing four people in the kosher grocery had claimed allegiance to the Islamic State not long before police stormed the grocery and shot him.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls declared prior to the historic vote that France was at war with terrorism, not with religion, The Associated Press reported.
“France is not at war with Islam and Muslims,” he said.
The one lawmaker who voted against extending the war campaign in Iraq argued that additional bombing could invite more extremist violence, the AP news agency said.