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#ParisAttacks: Suspected mastermind identified

It is believed that three of the suicide bombers responsible for the rampage, which killed 132 people, lived in the Belgian capital Brussels.

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The Serbian Interior Ministry said the holder of a Syrian passport found next to the body of one of the attackers outside the Stade de France stadium “was registered on the Presevo border crossing on October 7 this year, where he formally sought asylum”.

One of his brothers, Brahim Abdeslam, is said to have been an attacker who blew himself up outside a bar on the Boulevard Voltaire near Bataclan.

Abdeslam is the older brother of 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, who is now the subject of an global manhunt.

France launched airstrikes Sunday against the Islamic State in its stronghold of al-Raqqa in Syria, in what Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said was a reaction to the Paris attacks.

The jets launched from sites in Jordan and the Persian Gulf, in co-ordination with USA forces.

Heavily armored counterterrorism units executed more than 150 raids in eight cities across France on Monday, arresting at least 23 people tied to the deadly attacks on Paris, NBC News reports. As the NY Times notes, France’s previous strikes have been on more limited scale, but clearly that is now changing as a result of Friday’s attacks.

French police have issued an worldwide arrest warrant for the “dangerous” 26-year-old, advising the public not to approach him.

Yet police already had him in their grasp early Saturday, when they stopped a auto carrying three men near the Belgian border.

“We know that more attacks are being prepared, not just against France but also against other European countries”, Prime Minister Manuel Valls told RTL radio.

French President Francois Hollande has said the attacks were an act of war and promised that his country’s reaction would be pitiless.

French authorities have not said if that man’s fingerprints match any of the attacker’s remains.

All the aforementioned French and Iraqi security and intelligence officials spoke with reporters on condition of anonymity, citing the ongoing investigation.

“We did, however, not hear back from France on the matter”, added the official.

The Paris attackers talked with IS members in Syria prior to the assault, both French and American officials told the NY Times.

Two people have been arrested in Belgium and charged with terror-related offenses, officials there say.

Abu Kamal is in Syria’s eastern Syrian Dayr Az Zawr region, which the Pentagon has said provides Islamic State with about two-thirds of its oil revenue, one of the largest sources of income for the militant group.

Following the air strikes carried out by the military on Sunday in Raqqa, Syria, Hollande announced that France would intensify its operations in Syria.

The death toll from Friday’s attacks has risen to 132, with 352 people wounded and 99 of them still in a serious condition in hospital.

Abdeslam rented the black Volkswagen Polo used by the hostage-takers.

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And he threatened to strip people with dual nationality of their French citizenship if they are convicted of terror offences, something David Cameron has pledged in the past.

Paris attacks may lead to US military anti-IS escalation