Also on Friday, the lawyer for Abaaoud’s father said her client regretted that his son had died in Wednesday’s shoot-out with police. Eight people were arrested. For proof, he pointed to their history of executions, bombings, beheadings and added that the use of chemical and biological weapons can’t be ruled out.
Advertisement
He said it was vital that Europe’s national security services do more to share information, something echoed by his Italian counterpart.
Of the more than 350 people wounded in the Paris attacks, scores remain in critical condition.
His brother Brahim was among seven suicide bombers in the attacks on Parisian cafes, a stadium and a concert hall.
Hollande has proposed modifying the French constitution to better deal with terrorism and other crises, such as allowing dual nationals to be stripped of their French citizenship if they were convicted of terrorism. There are now already two suspects in custody charged with terrorist murder and belonging to a terrorist.
Belgium’s Prime Minister Charles Michel also announced a $427 million package of new security measures, including plans to jail militants who return from Syria, banning hate preachers and closing unregistered places of worship.
He told lawmakers that security personnel will be increased and special attention will be paid to eradicating messages of hate.
“We need to act firmly, we need to act swiftly and with force”, Cazeneuve said after the Luxembourg minister who chaired the meeting confirmed the formal approval of an agreement reached among officials earlier in the week.
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said there is no credible threat in the US of a Paris-type attack and no connection between the Paris attackers and the U.S. Still, he urged Americans to be vigilant and tell law enforcement about anything suspicious.
The State Department issued a warning Wednesday that St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Milan’s cathedral and La Scala opera house, as well as churches, synagogues, restaurants, theaters and hotels had been identified as “potential targets”.
“A new team of terrorists was neutralized and all indications are that given their arms, their organizational structure and their determination, the commando could have struck”, Molins said.
Dozens of French artists, writers and musicians urged people to light candles and play music at exactly 9:20 p.m., the time the attacks began, in a show of defiance against the extremists.
In calling on all nations to redouble their efforts and coordinate action to prevent more attacks by extremist groups, the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a French-sponsored resolution Friday.
Jean-Marc Falcone, speaking on France-Info radio, said he was unable to say if Salah Abdeslam, a friend of Abaaoud, could be back on French territory. “But if all the countries in the world aren’t capable of fighting against 30,000 people (IS members), it’s incomprehensible”.
The suspected attack planner, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, appears to have been able to travel between Syria and Europe with relative ease.
Next week Hollande is going to Washington and Moscow to push for a stronger worldwide coalition against IS.
He is believed to have recruited young men to fight for Islamic State from immigrant families in his native Brussels district of Molenbeek and elsewhere in Belgium and France.
In its English-language magazine, Islamic State said it will continue its violence and “retaliate with fire and bloodshed” for insults against the Prophet Muhammad and “the multitudes killed and injured in crusader airstrikes”.
Advertisement
The top suspect behind the Paris attacks has been seen on CCTV footage recorded at a metro station while the massacre that killed 129 people was under way, a police source said on Friday. “We’re off, it’s started”, it read. But investigators say their work is far from finished. Officials have said some may have taken advantage of the large influx of refugees from Syria over the summer to evade normal border controls.
