The ‘act of war’ that left 129 dead in Paris was the work of three teams with one objective: To kill as many as possible, authorities said.
THE GUARDIAN
Three coordinated teams of jihadi gunmen struck at six different sites across Paris in a bloody wave of suicide bombings and shootings that left 129 people dead, the Paris public prosecutor has said.
François Molins told a news conference on Saturday that at least 352 more were injured – including 90 critically – in the attacks on Friday night on the Stade de France, a city-centre concert hall and a series of packed cafes and bars.
Molins said three French nationals had been arrested in Belgium, where they all lived, in connection with the attacks.
As police worked to identify the seven militants, all of whom died in the attacks, Molins also confirmed that at least one of the fighters, identified by his fingerprints, was a French national from the Paris suburb of Courcouronnes. The man, born in 1985, had a criminal record and had been flagged as an extremist as early as 2010, the prosecutor said.
Relatives of one of the attackers, a Frenchman born in the Paris suburbs, were later arrested on Saturday, according to French authorities who said that searches were underway.
Molins also said earlier that a Syrian passport, belonging to a man born in 1990 who was not known to the French authorities, had been found lying close by the bodies of two other jihadis, who both blew themselves up in the course of their attacks.
Greece’s citizen protection minister, Nikos Toskas, said earlier that the passport’s owner had entered the European Union through the Greek island of Leros on 3 October, adding: “We do not know if the passport was checked by other countries through which the holder likely passed.”
A government official in Athens told the Guardian: “We found the serial number and we found the finger prints and palm prints that are also taken [from every refugee].” But he warned against “automatically concluding” that the passport holder was the assailant.
“It is now up to the French authorities to match those finger prints with the remains of the body of the attacker, and announce the identity,” the official said. “Either this person passed through Greece posing as a refugee, or along the way he bought or stole the passport. At this stage either scenario is possible.”
Greek government sources were later quoted by Reuters as saying that a second man suspected of being among the attackers was likely to have passed through Greece. However, a senior Greek government source later told the Guardian there was no indication “whatsoever” that this was the case.
Isis said it had dispatched eight jihadi – leaving open the possibility that one may still be on the run – wearing suicide bomb belts and carrying machine guns, across the French capital on Friday night in a “blessed attack on ... crusader France”.
 | ||||
| Belgian police made at least one arrest today in the Brussels neighbourhood of Molenbeek |
The coordinated assault seems to mark new chapter in terrorism.
The complex attacks, which the Islamic State said it carried out, would mark the first major operation for the militant group outside the Middle East, prompting the rest of Europe to bolster security at borders and transit points.
Caught between internal, external terror threats, France struggles to cope
Last night's co-ordinated and widespread series of atrocities was on a whole new scale of indiscriminate horror. ISIS had struck at the heart of everything Parisians love most: a concert hall, a football stadium, bars and cafés. It was an assault on the very fabric of French, and Western, society - designed to kill as many human beings as possible, whoever they were. President Francois Hollande branded attacks an 'act of war' and vowed to 'mercilessly' retaliate against the extremists.
Attacks May Prompt More Aggressive U.S. Strategy on
ISIS
As lethal attacks against Russia, Lebanon and France prove the global reach of ISIS, the United States will likely reassess the threat it pose.