President Francois Hollande said on Monday France would step up the battle against the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria in the wake of Paris attacks he dubbed “acts of war”.
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France wants to bring the United States and Russian Federation together in a grand coalition dedicated to smashing the Islamic State group, President Francois Hollande told lawmakers Monday in a rare joint session in the Palace of Versailles as authorities worldwide struggled to pinpoint those responsible for the deadliest attacks on French soil since World War II. And while it may seem trite to describe the weekend’s killings as an attack on all of us, that’s precisely what it was.
Another suspect, 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, remains on the run.
Julien Pearce, a journalist at Europe 1 radio who escaped by crawling onto the Bataclan stage, said he got a good look at one attacker who appeared “very young”.
The raid destroyed an IS command post, jihadist recruitment centre, munitions depot and a training camp, the French defence ministry said.
Panic ensued Sunday night as police abruptly cleared mourners from the Place de la Republique square, where police said firecrackers sparked a false alarm.
France Prime Minister Manuel Valls declared that his country was at war with terrorism. The violence spread fear through the city and exceeded the horrors of the Charlie Hebdo attack just 10 months ago.
French authorities have so far identified more than 100 of the dead, who included journalists, lawyers, students, parents of small children.
He also pledged to increase budgets for security forces and the army. Two of the gunmen behind the bloodbath at the Bataclan theatre, where 89 people were killed, have been identified as 29-year-old Paris native Omar Ismail Mostefai and 28-year-old Samy Amimour. They may have been motivated by politico-religious ideology, cultural hatred, personal grievances or a mix of these and other factors; we don’t know.
Last night an global arrest warrant has been released for a man believed to have been involved in the Paris attacks, which claimed 129 lives.
He died when he detonated his explosive vest at the Comptoir Voltaire cafe.
The official, Gregory Goupil of the Alliance Police Nationale, whose region includes the area of the stadium, said explosions went off simultaneously near two entrances and a McDonalds.
Bilal Hadfi, aged 19 or 20, who lived in Belgium, was one.
It was registered by a refugee who landed on the Greek island of Leros in October.
There is no information on the third attacker at the stadium.
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The Guardian reported Abaaoud is a known extremist who was named in several police files along with Ibrahim Abdeslam, who carried out the suicide attack at the Comptoir Voltaire cafe.
