CNN - France launched its first airstrikes from an aircraft carrier against ISIS on Monday as French President Francois Hollande prepared to meet with world leaders in an attempt to build an anti-ISIS coalition.
Brussels remained tense amid warnings of a possible terrorist attack. Authorities charged a suspect in connection with the Paris killings, Belgium's Federal Prosecutor Office said Monday, and the nation's prime minister said Brussels will remain at the highest terror level until at least next Monday.
French warplanes took off from the aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle, which was deployed recently in the eastern Mediterranean, and attacked ISIS targets in Syria and Iraq, said the spokesman for the Etat Major des Armées, the French Chief of Defense Staff.
With the addition of those carrier-based aircraft, France now has 38 aircraft carrying out bombing raids against ISIS, CNN correspondent Jim Bittermann said.
France had already been attacking ISIS by air, but not from its carrier, and hit targets in Ramadi and Mosul in Iraq on Monday, the ministry of defense said.
The French President prepared a diplomatic initiative to form a multi-national force to fight ISIS, the terrorist group that claimed responsibility for the November 13 attacks that left 130 dead in Paris.
Hollande will visit Washington to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday, then meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday and travel to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday.
Hollande met with British Prime Minister David Cameron earlier Monday and they agreed to a pan-European effort for stronger external EU border controls, a more effective way of screening people and greater information sharing, Cameron said.
They also paid their respects to victims of the attacks at the Bataclan concert hall as they visited the site of the deadliest massacre on November 13.
Cameron will make a case for the United Kingdom to start bombing ISIS positions in Syria on Thursday, he said Monday as he presented the country's defense spending review in Parliament.
Russia may be showing signs of warming up to a coalition with France. The Russian Defense Ministry released photos on Monday that showed the words "For Paris" written on Russian missiles that will target ISIS positions.
