French police are hunting for a second fugitive directly involved in
the deadly Paris attacks, officials said on Tuesday, as France made an
unprecedented demand that its European Union allies support its military
action against the Islamic State group.
The disclosure of a
second possible fugitive, whom authorities said they hadn't identified,
came as French
and Russian warplanes pounded the jihadi group's
self-declared capital in Syria. President Vladimir Putin ordered a
Russian military cruiser to work with France on fighting the militants
in Syria and US Secretary of State John Kerry hinted at a possible
Syrian ceasefire so the world could focus on crushing ISIS.
French
and Belgian police were already looking for a key suspect, 26-year-old
Salah Abdeslam, whose suicide-bomber brother, Brahim, died in the
attacks Friday night that killed at least 132 people and left over 350
wounded in Paris. Islamic state militants have claimed responsibility
for the carnage.
Seven attackers died that night - three near the
national stadium, three inside the Bataclan concert hall and one at a
restaurant nearby. A team of gunmen also opened fire at nightspots in
one of Paris' trendiest neighbourhoods.
However,
French officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday that an analysis
of the attacks showed that one person directly involved in them was
unaccounted for. The three officials, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because they were not authorised to provide details about the
ongoing investigation, said the second fugitive has not been identified.
The Paris attacks have galvanised international determination to confront the militants.
The
French government invoked a never-before-used article of the EU's
Lisbon Treaty obliging members of the 28-nation bloc to give "aid and
assistance by all the means in their power" to a member country that is
"the victim of armed aggression on its territory".
'9/11 for Europe'
French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said all 27 of France's EU partners responded positively.
"Every country said: I am going to assist, I am going to help," Drian said.
Arriving
for talks in Brussels, Greek Defence Minister Panagiotis Kammenos told
reporters that the Paris attacks were a game-changer for the bloc. "This
is September 11 for Europe," he said.
Paris police said 16 people
had been arrested in connection to the deadly attacks, and police have
carried out 104 raids since a state of emergency was declared on
Saturday.
French military spokesperson Colonel Gilles Jaron said
the latest airstrikes in the Islamic State group's de-facto capital, the
Syrian city of Raqqa, destroyed a command post and training camp. Nato
allies were sharing intelligence and working closely with France, Nato
chief Jens Stoltenberg said.
In Moscow, Putin ordered the Russian
missile cruiser Moskva, currently in the Mediterranean, to start
co-operating with the French military on operations in Syria. His order
came as Russia's defence minister said its warplanes fired cruise
missiles on militant positions in Syria's Idlib and Aleppo provinces.
ISIS has positions in Aleppo province, while the Nusra militant group is
in Idlib.
Moscow has vowed to hunt down those responsible for
blowing up a Russian passenger plane over Egypt last month, killing 224
people, mostly Russian tourists. ISIS has also claimed responsibility
for that October 31 attack.
Seven of the Paris attackers died on
Friday, six after detonating suicide belts and one from police gunfire.
However, Iraqi intelligence officials have told The Associated Press
their sources indicated 19 people participated in the Paris attacks and
five others provided hands-on logistical support.
French Interior
Minister Bernard Cazeneuve conceded that "the majority of those who were
involved in this attack were unknown to our services".
Mohamed
Abdeslam, another brother of fugitive Salah Abdeslam, on Tuesday urged
his brother to turn himself in. Mohamed, who was arrested and questioned
following the attack but released on Monday, told French TV BFM that
his brother was devout, but showed no signs of being a radical Islamist.
He said Salah prayed and attended a mosque occasionally, but also
dressed in jeans and pullovers.
Two men arrested in Belgium,
meanwhile, admitted driving to France to pick up Salah Abdeslam early on
Saturday, their lawyers said.
Mohammed Amri, 27, denies any
involvement in the Paris attacks and says he went to Paris to collect
his friend Salah, according to his defence lawyer Xavier Carrette. Hamza
Attou, 21, says he went along to keep Amri company, his lawyer Carine
Couquelet said. Both are being held on charges of terrorist murder and
conspiracy.
Belgian media reported that Amri and Attou were being
investigated as potential suppliers of the suicide bombs used in the
attacks, since ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer that can be used to make
explosives, was discovered in a search of their residence.
Their defence lawyers said they could not confirm those reports.
Salah
and Brahim Abdeslam booked a hotel in the southeastern Paris suburb of
Alfortville and rented a house in the northeastern suburb of Bobigny
several days before the attacks, a French judicial official told The
Associated Press. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she was
not authorised to speak about the ongoing investigation.
Austria's
Interior Ministry said Salah Abdeslam, the suspected driver of one
group of gunmen carrying out attacks on Paris, entered the country about
two months ago with two unidentified companions. After the attacks,
Salah Abdeslam slipped through France's fingers, with French police
accidentally permitting him to cross into Belgium on Saturday.
Kerry flew to France as a gesture of solidarity and met Hollande and Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Tuesday.
Standing
next to Hollande at the Elysee Palace, Kerry said the carnage in the
French capital, along with recent attacks in Egypt, Lebanon and Turkey,
made it clear that more pressure must be brought to bear on Islamic
State extremists.
International co-operation
A
cease-fire between Syria's government and the opposition could be just
weeks away, Kerry said, describing it as potentially a "gigantic step"
toward deeper international co-operation against ISIS.
A French
security official, meanwhile, said anti-terror intelligence officials
had identified Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian of Moroccan descent, as the
chief architect of the Paris attacks.
The official cited chatter
from ISIS figures that Abaaoud had recommended a concert as an ideal
target for inflicting maximum casualties, as well as electronic
communications between Abaaoud and one of the Paris attackers who blew
himself up. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the
sensitive investigation.
It was not exactly clear where Abaaoud is.
In other developments on Tuesday:
—
In a show of solidarity, British Prime Minister David Cameron was
joining Prince William at a soccer match Tuesday night between England
and France in London's Wembley Stadium. Armed police were patrolling the
site.
— Another Belgian car with a shattered front passenger
window was found in northern Paris - the third vehicle police identified
as having links to the attacks.
— The Eiffel Tower shut down
again after opening for just a day on Monday, and heavily armed troops
patrolled the courtyard of the Louvre Museum.
— Germany's top
security official said a Syrian passport found with one of the Paris
attackers may have been planted to make Europeans fearful of refugees.
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told reporters in Berlin it was
"unusual that such a person was faithfully registered in Greece, Serbia
and Croatia" amid the chaos of Europe's immigration crisis. He said the
multiple passport registrations could be "a trail that was intentionally
laid".
— German police arrested seven people near the western
city of Aachen, but later released them, saying no links to the Paris
attacks were found.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
French hunt 2nd fugitive, launch new airstrikes
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Write comments