FOUR French airstrikes have killed dozens of fighters from the Islamic State group in a contested area of northern Iraq.

French president Francois Hollande said Rafale fighter jets struck a logistics depot in north-eastern Iraq and the target was "entirely destroyed".

The airstrikes were France's first in Iraq after Mr Hollande agreed to bolster Iraq's fight against IS fighters. The president has said French military action would be limited to Iraq and no ground troops would be sent.

The US has also carried out airstrikes against the terror group and Congress has given final approval to President Barack Obama's plan for training and arming moderate Syrian rebels to battle IS, a major part of his military campaign to "degrade and destroy" the terror group.

An Iraq military spokesman said yesterday French airstrikes hit the town of Zumar, killing dozens of extremist fighters.

Zumar and surrounding towns have remained heavily contested by Islamist fighters, even though Iraqi and Kurdish security forces have managed to make headway in nearby regions with the support of US airstrikes.

It comes a day after IS released a propaganda video featuring a British hostage believed to be journalist John Cantlie.

The video shows a man who identifies himself as Mr Cantlie sitting at a desk, looking calm and reading from a prepared script, saying he would talk about the self-proclaimed Islamic State movement.