The French navy’s flagship has arrived in Abu Dhabi after taking part in operations against ISIL in Iraq and Syria.
The Charles de Gaulle, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with a displacement of 43,000 tonnes, was accompanied by French and European warships.
They are part of a taskforce involved in a multinational military campaign against the militant group.
After leaving its home port of Toulon in southern France last November, the aircraft carrier arrived in the UAE capital for a few days of rest for its 1,900-strong crew.
“As this mission is long and demanding, we need to regenerate the crew before a new phase of operations,” said a French military spokesman.
French president François Hollande announced the deployment of the Charles de Gaulle on November 5 last year, about a week before terrorist attacks in Paris killed 120 people. Details