France will deliver weapons to Kurdish forces fighting Islamic extremists in Iraq in the “coming hours”, President François Hollande’s office said on Wednesday.

The French presidency said in a statement that the arms shipment had been agreed with authorities in Baghdad and would be delivered “in the coming hours".

"To meet the urgent needs voiced by the Kurdish regional authorities, the head of state (Hollande) decided in liaison with Baghdad to ship arms in the coming hours", said the statement.

The French government’s decision comes after the US conducted a series of air strikes against jihadists in northern Iraq.

Radical Sunni militants calling themselves Islamic State (formerly known as Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS), launched an attack earlier this month against Kurdish forces in northern Iraq, sparking a mass exodus among the country’s Yazidi, Christian, Turkmen, and Shabak minorities.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)