Belgian and French police launch international manhunt

[webfact]

Belgian and French police launch international manhunt



PARIS: -- French and Belgian police have issued an international arrest warrant for a possible eighth person involved in Friday’s attacks. An alert has gone out for Abdeslam Salah, one of three French brothers who were living in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek.

Two of the brothers’ names were on the rental contract of cars hired in Belgium and used in the assaults.

The investigation points to the likelihood of a team led by French nationals, based in Belgium. The two countries have pledged to work together.

“The despicable attacks which hit us on Friday were prepared abroad, and a team of participants was mobilised on Belgian territory, which could have benefited, the investigation indicates, from help in France,” told reporters at a joint press conference with Jean Jambon, Belgian Interior Minister who said:

“In the forthcoming days we will bring together our police services and information services to again compare the different elements, and different information we have and to bring together all the information that we both have.”

France deadliest attacks in which 129 people lost their lives has sparked a outpouring of grief across the world and heightened political debate on security within Europe’s borders.

The European Union’s interior ministers are set to hold an emergency debate on the subject on Friday.


-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2015-11-16

[webfact]

France bombs Islamic State HQ, hunts attacker who got away
By GREG KELLER and PHILIPPE SOTTO

PARIS (AP) — France launched "massive" air strikes on the Islamic State group's de-facto capital in Syria Sunday night, destroying a jihadi training camp and a munitions dump in the city of Raqqa, where Iraqi intelligence officials say the attacks on Paris were planned.

Twelve aircraft including 10 fighter jets dropped a total of 20 bombs in the biggest air strikes since France extended its bombing campaign against the extremist group to Syria in September, a Defense Ministry statement said. The jets launched from sites in Jordan and the Persian Gulf, in coordination with U.S. forces.

Meanwhile, as police announced seven arrests and hunted for more members of the sleeper cell that carried out the Paris attacks that killed 129 people, French officials revealed to The Associated Press that several key suspects had been stopped and released by police after the attack.

The arrest warrant for Salah Abdeslam, a 26-year-old born in Brussels, calls him very dangerous and warns people not to intervene if they see him.

Yet police already had him in their grasp early Saturday, when they stopped a car carrying three men near the Belgian border. By then, hours had passed since authorities identified Abdeslam as the renter of a Volkswagen Polo that carried hostage takers to the Paris theater where so many died.

Three French police officials and a top French security official confirmed that officers let Abdeslam go after checking his ID. They spoke on condition of anonymity, lacking authorization to publicly disclose such details.

Tantalizing clues about the extent of the plot have emerged from Baghdad, where senior Iraqi officials told the AP that France and other countries had been warned on Thursday of an imminent attack.

An Iraqi intelligence dispatch warned that Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had ordered his followers to immediately launch gun and bomb attacks and take hostages inside the countries of the coalition fighting them in Iraq and Syria.

The Iraqi dispatch, which was obtained by the AP, provided no details on when or where the attack would take place, and a senior French security official told the AP that French intelligence gets these kinds of warnings "all the time" and "every day."

However, Iraqi intelligence officials told the AP that they also warned France about specific details: Among them, that the attackers were trained for this operation and sent back to France from Raqqa, the Islamic State's de-facto capital.

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. There were 24 people involved in the operation, they said: 19 attackers and five others in charge of logistics and planning.

None of these details have been corroborated by officials of France or other Western intelligence agencies.

All these French and Iraqi security and intelligence officials spoke with the AP on condition of anonymity, citing the ongoing investigation.

Abdeslam is one of three brothers believed to be involved; One who crossed with him into Belgium was later arrested, and another blew himself up inside the Bataclan theater after taking the audience hostage and firing on them repeatedly. It was the worst of Friday's synchronized attacks, leaving 89 fatalities and hundreds of people wounded inside.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility. Its statement mocked France's air attacks on suspected IS targets in Syria and Iraq, and called Paris "the capital of prostitution and obscenity."

In all, three teams of attackers including seven suicide bombers attacked the national stadium, the concert hall and nearby nightspots. The attacks wounded 350 people, 99 of them seriously.

Abdeslam rented the black Volkswagen Polo used by the hostage-takers, another French security official said. A Brussels parking ticket found inside led police to at least one of the arrests in Belgium, a French police official said.

Three Kalashnikovs were found inside another car known to have been used in the attacks that was found in Montreuil, an eastern Parisian suburb, another a French police official said.

As many as three of the seven suicide bombers were French citizens, as was at least one of the men arrested in the Molenbeek neighborhood of Brussells, which authorities consider to be a focal point for extremists and fighters going to Syria from Belgium.

Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon, speaking to The Associated Press by phone, said suspects arrested in Molenbeek had been stopped previously in Cambrai, France, "in a regular roadside check" but that police had had no suspicion about them at the time and they were let go quickly.

One, identified by the print on a recovered finger, was 29-year-old Frenchman Ismael Mostefai, who had a record of petty crime and had been flagged in 2010 for ties to Islamic radicalism, the Paris prosecutor said. A judicial official and lawmaker Jean-Pierre Gorges confirmed his identity.

Police detained Mostefai's father, a brother and other relatives Saturday night, and they were still being questioned Sunday, the judicial official said.

These details stoked fears of homegrown terrorism in France, which has exported more jihadis than any other in Europe, and seen many return from the fight. All three gunmen in the January attacks on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a kosher supermarket in Paris were French.

The attackers inside the Bataclan seemed quite young, according to one survivor, Julien Pearce, a journalist at Europe 1 radio who escaped by crawling onto the stage, and then out an exit door when the shooters paused to reload. Before making his final dash, he got a good look at one of the assailants, he said.

"He seemed very young. That's what struck me, his childish face, very determined, cold, calm, frightening," Pearce said.

Struggling to keep his country calm and united after an exceptionally violent year, President Francois Hollande met Sunday with opposition leaders — conservative rival and former President Nicolas Sarkozy as well as increasingly popular far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who has used the attacks on Paris to advance her anti-immigrant agenda.

Refugees fleeing war by the tens of thousands fear the Paris attacks could prompt Europe to close its doors, especially after police said a Syrian passport found next to one attacker's body suggested its owner passed through Greece into the European Union and on through Macedonia and Serbia last month.

Paris remains on edge amid three days of official mourning. French troops have deployed by the thousands and tourist sites remain shuttered in one of the most visited cities on Earth. Panic ensued Sunday night as police abruptly cleared hundreds of mourners from the famed Place de la Republique square, where police said firecrackers sparked a false alarm.

"Whoever starts running starts everyone else running," said Alice Carton, city council member who was at the square. "It's a very weird atmosphere. The sirens and screaming are a source of fear."

Officers also moved in, guns drawn, after mourners panicked near the Carillon bar, where crowds have laid flowers and lit candles in memory of the 15 people killed there.

"Lots of people started running and screaming from the Carillon...tables were overturned, plates shattered. It was a terrible panic," said Jonathan Dogan, who took shelter in a nearby hotel. "I think people are terrified," Dogan said.
___

Greg Keller and Philippe Sotto reported from Paris. Other contributors include Lori Hinnant, Jamey Keaten, Raphael Satter, Angela Charlton and John Leicester in Paris; Raf Casert and John-Thor Dahlburg in Brussels; Maamoun Youssef in Cairo, Danica Kirka in London and Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin.

-- (c) Associated Press 2015-11-16

[ezzra]

Now launch another massive attack on all the Muslim sleeper cells and the no-go zones in your country and cities, a breading ground and support of terrorism groups, monitor or even shut half of most of the mosques that preach and incites hatred and fill people's heads with ideas and notions that goes against the French laws, jail or deport all of whom who do not adheres to the rules and laws, and put a stop on taking in anymore Muslims immigrants and refugees,,, and this is only the start....

[BuaBS]

The Islamic State called Paris "the capital of prostitution and obscenity."

So that's why the Thai are worried and have extra security....

Triple the security in Pattaya & Bangkok & Phuket , no make it tenfold ....

[shirtless]

Come down hard on all of their activities , What happened in Paris is shocking , we should never have been put at risk , the PC crowd and do gooders can give themselves are big pat on the back this is what your fought so hard for .Many thanks

[klauskunkel]

The Islamic State group...called Paris "the capital of prostitution and obscenity"

while ISIS is the center of rape, barbarity and mindless destruction.

[Cuchulainn]

Well, you will let them in..................

[Dustdevil]

I like those Sharia patrols in parts of London. One idiot actually told the U.S. "60 Minutes" TV journalist to cover herself! And this was out in public. Let's all go to the Gulf Middle East and tell all the women to start wearing short skirts and plunging necklines--or else.

[Berty100]

France launched "massive" air strikes on the Islamic State group's de-facto capital in Syria Sunday night, destroying a jihadi training camp and a munitions dump in the city of Raqqa, where Iraqi intelligence officials say the attacks on Paris were planned.

And they just found out about those targets during the weekend. RIGHT?

Why the Paris attack had to happen before they act on intelligence they have probably for long time already?

[tonray]

The bottom line is that ISIS is headquartered in RAQQA hiding out behind civilians. But as we found out in WWII the only way to win is to go after them. Playing wack a mole with isolated drone strikes will never defeat them. First we need to stop destabilizing the region....stop supporting the ouster of Assad, only making things worse. Start to work with the Iranians and Russians. Attack Raqqa and Mosul Isis strongholds....attack viciously and without mercy. Push Isis into the waiting arms of the Iranians and let them deal with the cowards their way. Enough of this waiting for them to kill us nonsense. Sorry....if I sound angry but it's time to finish these a-holes.

[anon4546543]

The French bombed a training centre, an IS head quarters and a recruiting centre. Of course these targets suddenly appeared overnight. No one knew about them before the attack on France. And they dropped 20 bombs. Wow, to see these targets suddenly found. To think that the intelligence could not find terrorists in France, acquiring AKM and ammunition, and explosives. Well done! I feel so reassured.

[BuaBS]

The Islamic State group...called Paris "the capital of prostitution and obscenity"

while ISIS is the center of rape, barbarity and mindless destruction.

So did every army in the past & present . Only now they put it on youtube and it gets blown up by MSM for governments hidden agenda's.

[Baerboxer]

I like those Sharia patrols in parts of London. One idiot actually told the U.S. "60 Minutes" TV journalist to cover herself! And this was out in public. Let's all go to the Gulf Middle East and tell all the women to start wearing short skirts and plunging necklines--or else.

Those patrols should be stopped by the police. They are nothing but a bunch of young thugs acting in a way likely to cause a breach of the peace.

It's time Britain and all other non Muslim countries stopped pandering to the followers of Islam. If they want to follow Sharia Law, feel free to piss off anytime.

[tonray]

I like those Sharia patrols in parts of London. One idiot actually told the U.S. "60 Minutes" TV journalist to cover herself! And this was out in public. Let's all go to the Gulf Middle East and tell all the women to start wearing short skirts and plunging necklines--or else.

I'm doing my part in Bangkok...and it seems to be working ...! Anything for the cause.

[Linzz]

Come down hard on all of their activities , What happened in Paris is shocking , we should never have been put at risk , the PC crowd and do gooders can give themselves are big pat on the back this is what your fought so hard for .Many thanks

This is what ISIS wants, to drive a wedge between Muslims and the West, do sh-t stuff to cause outrage and hatred, to come down hard on all their activities i.e. bomb them so that the co-lateral damage is so great there will be an even bigger anti West uprising to fulfill their Armageddon which they believe they will win. So all the rednecks and reactionaries can give themselves a pat on the back for being manipulated by ISIS's dream. Many thanks.

[Mosha]

The suburb where Paris was planned is responsible for other attacks. Among them Madrid.Belgium needs to flatten it.