France intends to continue airstrikes against ISIS in Syria, and the arrival of aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle will triple the country’s ability to carry out those strikes, Hollande said. A Seat vehicle with suspected links to the Paris attacks has been found by police in Montreuil. He’s now the subject of a manhunt.
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Belgian authorities released a wanted photo of Salah on Sunday and have told the public not to approach him, warning “do not intervene on your own, under any circumstances”.
A French security official said anti-terror intelligence officials had identified Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian of Moroccan descent, as chief architect of the attacks on a rock concert, a soccer game and popular nightspots in one of Paris’ trendiest districts.
Italian news agency Ansa and newspaper Il Messaggero said three of those involved were staying in the Brussels commune of Molenbeek, where five arrests were made on Saturday. They spoke on condition of anonymity, lacking authorization to publicly disclose such details.
Part of the problem has been the ease with which potential attackers can cross from Belgium to France and back.
President Francois Hollande called the coordinated assault on Friday night an “act of war” as the capital’s normally bustling streets fell eerily quiet, 10 months after attacks on magazine Charlie Hebdo shocked the nation.
By the time police officers in Paris alerted French officials at the border, it was already too late.
British police and spies are working closely with counterparts in France and Belgium to identify and pursue those behind the massacre.
The officials also said that a sleeper cell in France then met with the attackers after their training and helped them to execute the plan.
Quoting an unnamed senior official, Israeli television said Israel’s spy services saw a “clear operational link” between the Paris mayhem, suicide bombings in Beirut on Thursday, which killed 43, and the Oct 31 downing of a Russian airliner over Egypt, where 224 people died. The rooms also contained pizza boxes, as well as tubes and other material that are being tested for explosives, according to the reports. It was the worst of Friday’s synchronized attacks, leaving 89 fatalities and hundreds of people wounded inside.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility.
Two of those three suspects are dead and one remains at large.
A total of 132 people were killed and 352 injured during the gun and bomb rampage carried out by three teams in identical explosives vests who targeted the hall, restaurants and bars and the national stadium.
They lure people online, he added, comparing the neighborhood’s jihadist influence to that of Finsbury Park in London about 15 years ago.
Abdeslam rented the black Volkswagen Polo used by the hostage-takers, another French security official said.
Hours later, Belgian police, working on a request from the French, detained three men – including one of Abdelslam’s brothers – in Molenbeek, which authorities consider to be a focal point for Islamic extremists and fighters going to Syria from Belgium.
One of the men was 20 and the other was 31. They have issued a warrent for his arrest.
Police detained Mostefai’s father, a brother and other relatives Saturday night, and they were still being questioned Sunday, the judicial official said.
“The one responsible for the attacks in Paris… he is a criminal and not a refugee and not an asylum seeker”, he told a news conference on the sidelines of a G20 summit of world leaders in Turkey. While most of what is known about him is being linked to a passport recovered at the scene, a USA intelligence source who confirmed the name warned CBS News that the passport might be fake. Before making his final dash, he got a good look at one of the assailants, he said.
“He seemed very young”. The attacks in Paris, he said, represent “an aggression against our country, against our values, against its youth and its way of life”.
– Germany’s top security official said a Syrian passport found with one of the Paris attackers may have been planted to make Europeans fearful of refugees.
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The French government has declared a state of emergency and announced three days of mourning for the victims of Friday’s bloodshed. French troops have deployed by the thousands and tourist sites remain shuttered in one of the most visited cities on Earth. It turned out to be a false alarm.
