“We are weeks away conceivably from the possibility of a big transition for Syria”, he said.
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Officials from the USA, French and other Western governments have expressed worries for months about Islamic State-inspired attacks by militants who fought in Syria, the official noted.
“According to two sources close to the investigation, Salim Benghalem, 35, is considered the supervisor for French would-be jihadists who travel to Syria to live and train with the group”. Abaaoud also knew another attacker, Ibrahim Abdeslam; they were tried together in 2010 in Belgium for a minor offense.
President François Hollande on Monday urged the rest of the civilized world to join in turning up the heat on “these despicable cowards”.
French President Francois Hollande has vowed to destroy the Islamic State group after its atrocities in Paris, promising tough new anti-terror measures at home and intensified bombing of Syria. He is now being held in a French prison on charges of murder, among others.
“If you want to stage an attack in Paris, but you think French security services are just too good in France, you do your initial plotting in Belgium”, Jones said.
“A large number of police launched a raid on a building in Rue Delaunoy”, RTBF said.
Police sources said properties in the Paris suburb of Bobigny, as well as the cities of Grenoble, Toulouse and Lyon, had been targeted.
“We have far fewer people who make that effort than in Europe”, Lynch said.
Two suicide bombers in the Friday’s terror attacks in Paris have been identified as residents of the Molenbeek district of the Belgian capital of Brussels.
Separately, Belgian authorities have released five out of the seven suspects who were arrested at the weekend after the Paris attacks, including another brother of Brahim, prosecutors said. The official said the authorities feared he might be in Europe. The holder of the passport passed through the Greek island of Leros on October 3 and the Serbian border town of Presovo on October 7, according to Greek and Serbian officials. It remained unclear if the passport was authentic.
All told, at least four French citizens were among the seven attackers.
A Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman says Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has visited the French embassy in Islamabad to convey his condolences over last Friday’s coordinated attacks in Paris in which at least 129 people were killed.
France has issued an arrest warrant for 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, who was identified as the alleged driver of a rental vehicle that delivered attackers to the scene of greatest slaughter, a rock concert inside a nightclub in which 89 died.
Last December, French newspaper Le Monde had interviewed Amimour’s father – it did not identify him by name at the time – who had gone to Syria to try to bring back his son.
Three members of Amimour’s family were taken into custody early on Monday, said the statement. He added, “It was only after the Paris attacks that the Turkish authorities received an information request about Ismael Omar Mostefai from France”.
“We’re not scared. We’re not going to stay inside”.
This proposal followed a raft of measures unveiled by Hollande in a historic speech to parliament on Monday, in which he called for an extension of the state of emergency by three months and announced 8,500 new jobs to help counter-terrorism.
It would also give police the right to do things like conduct searches without judicial oversight and enforce house arrests.
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The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak on the record, said police arrested more than six suspects Thursday at a luxury villa in suburban Istanbul, including Aine Lesley Davis, a British national linked to the high-profile IS figure nicknamed Jihadi John.
