French warplanes have pounded ISIS’s Syrian stronghold in retaliation for a wave of coordinated attacks claimed by the jehadis which left 129 people dead in Paris. As the nation prepared to mourn the victims with a minute of silence on Monday, French police released a photograph of a suspect also wanted in Belgium where it is suspected the attacks may have been planned.
In the first strikes since Friday’s carnage, French warplanes bombed ISIS targets in Raqa, the Islamists’ de facto capital in Syria. The raid destroyed an IS command post, jihadist recruitment centre, a munitions depot and a “terrorist” training camp, the defence ministry said.
The operation was conducted in coordination with US forces by a dozen aircraft which took off from Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, it said.
President Francois Hollande has denounced the Paris attacks — the worst in the country’s history — as an “act of war” and vowed to hit back against ISIS “without mercy”.
The French police said they were seeking a “dangerous” suspect, 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam who is said to be one of three brothers linked to the slaughter. He is believed to be either on the run or one of the gunmen who died during the attacks, security sources said. He lived in the poor immigrant Brussels neighbourhood of Molenbeek, where Belgian police made several arrests in connection with the Paris attacks.
“We are determined to act together... To dismantle the networks” of the jehadis, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said after talks yesterday with his Belgian counterpart Jan Jambon. As the investigation spread across Europe, police last evening carried out a search in Bobigny, in the northern suburbs of Paris, but the results were not yet known.