| ODIN |
2015-11-14 23:23 |
Paris attacks: French President Francois Hollande vows to strike back at Islamic State
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/world/paris-attacks-french-president-francois-hollande-vows-to-strike-back-at-islamic-state/story-fni0xs63-1227609400299
FRENCH President Francois Hollande has declared war on Islamic State as the terror group officially claims responsibility for the bloody attacks at six different sites of Paris, slaughtering at least 128 people.
France is in severe shock at the carnage that has ripped apart its capital city’s soul on a busy Friday night when eight Islamic terrorists armed with guns and explosives launched the deadly attacks.
The French newspaper Libération reports that one of the terrorists who carried out the Bataclan shooting has been confirmed as a French extremist who was known to police.
It also reports that an Egyptian passport was found on one of the attackers the Stade de France, as well as a Syrian passport. Neither man has had their identity confirmed by officials.
Mr Hollande was visibly outraged at the atrocities that have claimed 127 lives and left hundreds injured, many seriously and he called for all French citizens to be courageous.
As hundreds of mourners laid flowers at the site of the seven attacks, including the Bataclan music hall, Mr Hollande announced three official days of mourning.
He said the state of emergency, implemented in the hours after the attacks would stay in place and border checks would be maintained at all borders.
Mr Hollande said the attacks were planned outside of France and against France, particularly against the values of freedom.
“What happened yesterday was an act of war,’’ he said. “And faced with war a country must make the appropriate decisions.
“This was committed by Daesh against France, against the values we defend throughout the world, against the country we are. It is an act of war prepared and organised and planned from outside. It is absolutely barbaric. The families are in distress and pain and the country is also suffering.’’
Mr Hollande then went to the Bataclan concert hall, the scene of the deadliest atrocity and insisted his government would mount a merciless fight against terrorism.
British Prime Minister David Cameron warned his nation to brace for casualties from the attacks in Paris, but he has left the nation’s terror alert warning unchanged.
The British leader says the country “must be prepared for a number of British casualties” from the Paris atrocity. He condemned the “brutal and callous murderers”.
Mr Cameron said that the terror threat level in the UK would remain at “severe,” - the second-highest level - but that authorities would review plans amid an “evolving” threat from Islamic state.
ISIS CLAIMS ATTACKS AS THEIR WORK
The Islamic State jihadist group claimed the attacks in Paris in a statement posted online on Saturday.
It said “eight brothers wearing explosive belts and carrying assault rifles” conducted a “blessed attack on ... Crusader France.”
FINDING THOSE RESPONSIBLE
Mr Hollande said that the Islamic State militant group orchestrated the worst attacks seen in France since WWII and he vowed to strike back.
The multiple attacks across the city late Friday were “an act of war... committed by a terrorist army, the Islamic State, against France, against... what we are, a free country,” Mr Hollande said.
He declared three days of national mourning and put the nation’s security at its highest level.
German media reported that a 51-year-old man arrested last week after weapons were discovered in his car has been linked to the Paris attacks.
A spokesman for Bavarian state police confirmed that firearms, explosives and hand grenades had been found when undercover police stopped the suspect near the German-Austrian border on November five.
“He has refused to say what he planned to do or where the weapons came from,” Ludwig Waldinger told The Associated Press. “We are providing no further information at this point.”
Public broadcaster Bayrischer Rundfunk reported that German authorities contacted French officials shortly after the arrest. Citing unnamed investigators, the broadcaster reported that documents found during the arrest indicated that the man was traveling to Paris.
Bayrischer Rundfunk reported that the arms, which it said included an automatic rifle and one kilogram of TNT, were professionally hidden inside the body of the car, a VW Golf.
AS IT HAPPENED
More than 100 people including four police lost their lives inside the hall when three of the terrorists detonated their suicide vests. A fourth was killed by police. Witnesses described how the terrorists were yelling ‘Allah Akhbar’ inside the Bataclan.
After hours of uncertainty police confirmed eight terrorists have been killed, seven of them by detonating suicide vests packed with explosives.
The bloody Friday 13th attack on Paris began when four of the gunmen opened fire on a Cambodian restaurant in the popular 10th arondissement before moving to other nearby streets and mowing down diners and pedestrians. They then moved inside the Bataclan concert hall, which is just 200m from the offices of Charlie Hebdo, the scene of the grisly terror attack in January this year, and began firing upon the crowd with AK-47 assault weapons.
After a wave of panic and rush to the stage, about 60 terrified concert goers climbed over the roof of the Bataclan concert hall and were hauled to safety one by one in an adjacent apartment, while others hid inside the false ceiling of the toilets.
At the same time, another group of three terrorists were outside the Stade de France, packed with 80,000 fans watching a friendly football match between France and Germany and attended by the Mr Hollande and other politicians.
Huge explosions were heard inside the stadium when two of the suicide bombers detonated their vests but the game continued as police grappled with the situation outside and Mr Hollande was whisked away to the Elysee Palace to chair an emergency security meeting. Three hours after the bombings the German national team was still being held inside the stadium.
French radio station Europe 1 had a reporter inside the crowded Bataclan concert hall watching the American band Eagles of Death Metal when the attack began.
Pierre Janaszak said he thought the first shots were part of the act ‘’but we quickly understood, they were just firing into the crowd’’.
He said: “two or three individuals came in not wearing masks armed with Kalashnikov type automatic weapons and started shooting blindly into the crowd. The attack lasted 10 or 15 minutes, it was extremely violent and there was a wave of panic. Everybody ran towards the stage, there were scenes of trampling.’’
Of enormous concern was the ability of the gunmen to reload on multiple occasions.
‘’The reporter said: The attackers had all the time to reload at least three times, there weren’t masked and they were in charge. They were very young.’
Police chief Michel Cadot told reporters: “The terrorists, the murderers raked several cafe terraces with machinegun fire before entering Bataclan (a concert hall). There were many victims in terrible, atrocious conditions in several places.’’ |
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