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France honors victims of Paris attacks

Held at Les Invalides, it is the first formal gathering since Islamic State extremists launched multiple strikes on the French capital killing 130 people and injuring more than 350 others.

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National ceremony commemorating victims of the attacks was held on Friday at the National Residence of the Invalids in Paris.

French President Francois Hollande, who stood alone before the crowd assembled at the Invalides, vowed to do everything in his power to “destroy the army of fanatics who committed these crimes”.

Translates to “Paying homage to the nation in Marseilles today”.

In an emotional address the president pledged to destroy the Islamic State group with claimed responsibility for the attacks, and paid tribute to the victims.

Numerous 352 injured had suffered devastating and life-changing injuries, and doctors said hundreds more had suffered psychological trauma that would be hard to overcome.

Wounded people in the Nov. 13 Paris attacks wait for the start of a ceremony in the courtyard of the Invalides in Paris, Friday, Nov. 27, 2015. He explained further that the country will relentlessly protect its children.

He said: “It was this harmony that they wanted to break, shatter”.

The ceremony was attended by families of the victims and government officials.

Hollande noted that numerous dead, especially those at the Eagles of Death Metal show at the Bataclan, had careers in music – a music he said the attackers found intolerable. “We will keep going to the stadiums”, he said.

Reflecting the solemnity of the ceremony, the Liberation and Le Parisien newspapers listed all the victims on their front pages yesterday in stark black-and-white print.

Belgium on Tuesday also issued an global arrest warrant for Mohamed Abrini, 30, who was filmed along with Salah Abdeslam at a petrol station in Ressons, France on the motorway to Paris, in a Renault Clio which was later used in the attacks.

Having vowed to crush Isis for their role in the attacks, Hollande has spent the week in a whirlwind diplomatic bid to build a broad military coalition, although his efforts have met with limited success. In urging British MPs to support joining the fight, British Prime Minister David Cameron told the House of Commons Thursday that the United Kingdom “should not outsource its security to its allies”. “The investigating judge has remanded him in custody and charged him with terrorist murders and participation in the activities of a terrorist organisation”, the federal prosecutor said in a statement.

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‘Every French citizen can take part (in the tribute) by taking the opportunity to deck their home with a blue, white and red flag, the colours of France, ‘ Mr Hollande said.

Paris attacks: France holds national day of mourning