A French prosecutor says one of the attackers has been identified as a 29-year-old of Algerian descent who was born in France.
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One of the pillars of Europe’s modern way of life, the ability to move freely across the continent, was already crumbling. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Sunday told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the USA should admit Syrian Christians, after proper vetting.
In Vienna, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said his country’s intelligence services had shared information they had which indicated that France, the United States and Iran were among countries being targeted for attack.
The Black Friday terror attacks in Paris killed about 130 people dead and left hundreds more injured.
A large majority of migrants declare themselves as Syrians from the war-torn country, although they have no documents to prove it, Serbian police say.
One of the attackers seems to have followed the route taken by hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers who have crossed by boat from Turkey to the Greek Islands, before heading for European Union countries to the north, mainly Germany and Sweden.
His profile is typical of French jihadists – a period of petty crime before he became quickly radicalized and withdrew from the social circle he had previously known.
“People here understand not everyone are terrorists, a lot of people are running from terrorists, especially from IS”, said the trained architect. They had earlier confirmed two of the French suicide bombers had been living in Belgium.
“President Obama’s?plan to bring 10,000 Syrian refugees to the USA – just like his statement made a day before the Paris attacks that ISIS was “contained” – is outrageous and irresponsible”.
On Saturday Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said: “We have been saying that there are enormous security risks linked to migration”.
With an estimated four million Syrians having sought refuge in Europe, officials and experts expressed fear that an inability to track these individuals may have played a role in Friday’s massive terror attack.
Whether the man who blew himself up outside the Stade de France did indeed travel through Greece and Macedonia, as the passport suggests, remains unclear.
Poland’s new Europe minister Konrad Szymanski said on Saturday his incoming government did not agree with Poland’s commitment to accept its share of an EU-wide relocation of immigrants, and now, “in the face of the tragic acts in Paris, we do not see the political possibilities to implement (this)”.
The programme – long criticised by the EU’s eastern-most members – has come under fresh criticism after officials said a Syrian passport found at the scene of one of the attacks belonged to an asylum seeker who registered on a Greek island in October.
“Those behind the attacks in Paris can not be put on equal footing with refugees who are seeking asylum”, he said.
A man has been detained in Serbia after he was found carrying a Syrian passport matching the same details as one found near the body of one of the Paris suicide bombers.
Jihadi sources told Reuters in September they were using the migrant crisis to send a few of their fighters to Europe, although Western officials played down that prospect. The Police Minister of Greece, Nikos Toskas, announced that the terrorist had passed through Greece, posing as a refugee.
The two other bombers had fake Turkish passports.
With investigators trying to trace back the origins of weapons and explosives used in the attack, the list of countries used by the cell may well increase.
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“There was no Interpol arrest warrant issued for this person”, the ministry said.
