“One can not be attacked harshly, and you know the drama that is happening in Paris, without being present and active”.
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“This is September 11 for Europe”, he said. NATO allies were sharing intelligence and working closely with France, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said.
Police sources told Reuters that authorities conducted at least 110 house searches in cities around France overnight. Seven attackers died, six after detonating suicide belts and a seventh from police gunfire.
Kirby said Kerry will reiterate America’s commitment to the strong U.S.-France relationship, express condolences to the victims of the attacks and reiterate the shared resolve to counter violent extremism in France and elsewhere.
Iraqi officials said their intelligence agency suggested that 19 attackers and five back-up activists committed the carnage, an assertion not publicly supported by Western intelligence agencies.
German authorities are investigating claims that an Algerian man warned fellow refugees last week of an imminent attack in Paris.
Le Monde reported that his older brother, Ibrahim Abdeslam, was the suicide bomber whose explosives detonated at a cafe on boulevard Voltaire in eastern Paris during the wave of attacks on the city. “Paris has known even darker moments and it has overcome them”. The official has direct knowledge of the investigation but is not authorized to be publicly identified as speaking about the probe.
“Security is more important than a stability budget”, he said.
Seven people were detained in Belgium over the weekend, two of whom were charged on Monday with “participating in a terrorist attack”.
The attacks were “decided and planned in Syria, prepared and organised in Belgium, and perpetrated on our soil, with French complicity”, Hollande said.
French defence officials said the United States had stepped up intelligence sharing, enabling Paris to identify more specific targets. He described it as potentially a “gigantic step”, opening the way for deeper worldwide cooperation. He is due to meet Hollande on Tuesday morning.
Turning to measures within France, he said he would ask parliament to consider extending a state of emergency by three months. An Islamic State affiliate had already claimed responsibility for downing the plane.
Here is a look at the men behind France’s worst-ever terror attacks, which struck a concert hall, bars, restaurants, and a stadium.
A French official identified the suspected mastermind as Belgian Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who is said to be linked to the thwarted attacks on a Paris-bound high-speed train and a Paris area church earlier this year. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive investigation.
Abaaoud came to public attention past year by boasting in an IS propaganda video about his pride in piling the dead bodies of “infidel” enemies into a trailer.
France has mobilised 115,000 security personnel in the wake of Friday’s Paris attacks by Islamist militants, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has said.
In a show of patriotic defiance, the Eiffel Tower in Paris was reopened and lit up in the colours of the French flag.
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In his speech, Hollande also called for the solidarity of other European Union member countries, noting that “the enemy is not just an enemy of France, it’s also enemy of the Europe”.
