With ISIS claiming responsibility for the Paris attacks, the investigation moved beyond France as Belgian authorities made a number of arrests there in the first publicized apprehensions following Friday night’s bloodshed, a Belgian justice ministry spokeswoman told CNN on Saturday.
Meanwhile, at least one American is among the Paris death toll, now at 129 people, officials said. The U.S. victim was Nohemi Gonzalez, 23, of El Monte, California, a junior studying design in Paris for a semester while enrolled at California State University, Long Beach, the school said.
In Belgium, raids were conducted in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, justice ministry spokeswoman Sieghild Lacoere said. A car rented in Brussels was found near one of the sites of the Paris attacks, and “that’s what triggered the raids,” Lacoere told CNN.
In all, the raids took place in three homes in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, a Western intelligence source told CNN.
At least one of the raids is connected to the Paris attacks, according to the source, who is in contact with French and Belgian intelligence services. The other raids are connected to individuals known to Belgium intelligence, the source said. Some of the Paris attackers are also known to Belgium intelligence, the source added.
At least two Belgians were among the dead in France, the Belgian Foreign Ministry said.
One of the terrorists in Paris was identified as a 30-year-old French national from Courcouronnes, in the city’s southern suburbs, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said Saturday.
That individual was involved in the attack on a concert hall, had a criminal history, and was identified as having been radicalized in 2010, but that person had never been accused of terrorism, Molins said.
The Paris attacks are the worst violence witnessed by France since World War II and were deemed by the French President “an act of war.”
In the nearly simultaneous attacks on Friday night, the assailants targeted six sites, the deadliest being a massacre at a concert hall where at least 80 people were killed.
In addition to the 129 people killed in Paris, 352 were injured — at least 99 seriously, Molins said Saturday.
The threat of ISIS is well-known, with the jihadist group’s atrocities in Syria and Iraq being met with condemnation and airstrikes by a U.S.-led coalition that includes France.
But the scale and apparent coordination of Friday’s attacks inside the European Union, which comes on the heels of ISIS’ claim of taking down a Russian airliner in Egypt, represent an escalation of capabilities if confirmed.
In an online statement distributed by supporters Saturday, ISIS said eight militants wearing explosive belts and armed with machine guns attacked precisely selected areas in the French capital.
A Syrian passport was found near the body of an attacker outside one of the targeted sites, the Stade de France, according to a police source, CNN affiliate France 2 and other French media reported.
A source close to the investigation told CNN that an Egyptian passport was found on another attacker. “There is strong assumption that these passports are fake,” the source said.
In addition to those killed, 180 others were injured, according to the Paris Police Prefecture. More than half of them are in critical condition.
Americans are among the injured, U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said Saturday.
At least two Americans were injured and the number is expected to go up, a U.S. official told CNN.
President Francois Hollande blamed the attacks on ISIS, and said they were planned from the outside — “with inside complicity.”
“When the terrorists are capable of doing such acts, they must know that they will face a France very determined,” he said.
The attacks shook the conscience of a world.
Pope Francis called the attacks as a part of the “piecemeal Third World War,” he said Saturday.
“There is no religious or human justification for it,” he said in a telephone interview with TV2000, the television network of the Italian Bishops’ Conference.
“I am close to the people of France, to the families of the victims, and I am praying for all of them,” Pope Francis said in the interview, according to a statement from the Vatican. “I am moved and I am saddened. I do not understand, these things (are) hard to understand.”
What we know so far about the attacks
Response in wake of attacks
Hollande issued a state of emergency as the attacks unfolded Friday.
On Saturday, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve elaborated that the state of emergency could mean restrictions on people’s movements, among other measures. Border controls were tightened as of Friday, and the gendarmerie paramilitary police are on heightened alert, he said.
France has beefed up security forces at public transportation hubs, on the main roads and highways as well as everywhere in the center of Paris, Cazeneuve said following a meeting with Hollande.
While ISIS claims have not been confirmed, a senior U.S. intelligence official told CNN the U.S. government has “no reason to doubt” Hollande’s attribution of the attacks to the terrorist group.
The coordination and sophistication of such attacks are the most recent evidence that ISIS is eclipsing al Qaeda as the most significant global terrorist threat.
The “scale and complexity” of the Paris attacks “surprised everyone,” said Peter Neumann, director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College London.
Terror experts had been expecting some kind of attack but did not think ISIS capable of carrying off something on the scale of Friday’s terror, he said.
One of the attackers has been identified by fingerprints as a French national known to police, a source close to the investigation of the attacks told CNN.
Airports in France remained open, and airlines were still flying there, though some airlines reported canceled flights.
Some airlines were offering refunds to passengers who decide they do not want to fly to Paris.
Night of horror
Gunmen hit Friday night when bars and restaurants were bustling with residents and tourists. When they stormed in, glass shattered under the rage of bullets. Excited weekend chatter turned into panicked screams.
One of the targets was near a soccer match as France played world champion Germany. Terrified fans huddled together and streamed onto the field after blasts went off. Others hugged.
At the Bataclan, a concert hall where most of the fatalities occurred, fans were listening to American rock bandEagles of Death Metal when the blasts started.
“People yelled, screamed,” said Julien Pearce, a radio reporter who was there. “It lasted for 10 minutes. Ten horrific minutes where everybody was on the floor covering their head.”
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/11/14/world/paris-attacks/index.html
What really amazes me is that they are calling this sophisticated. It’s about as sophisticated as hunting fish with dynamite or organising a BBQ.
Hey one question: Am I persona non grata at FTTWW these days?
I know of no reason you should be, if you’re asking me, ul.
129 killed and over 350 wounded… I call bullshit on this being some jihadi yahoos. That is WAAAYYY too accurate a fire rate for some ak-47 or shotgun toting yahoos from the middle east to just RANDOMLY pull off. Whoever these shooters are they are not some jihadi, someone has put some SERIOUS training into them to pull this off and do it WITHIN TWO HOURS. My god, I can only imagine how badly modern armies would want these guys in their army, send them in and they can clear a town and almost never miss a shot all on their own.
Or maybe… Maybe these are those 4-5 obama paid all those millions for… Eh who knows.
Saw another article that claimed 153 dead.
The death toll is bouncing all over the place on this one.
“A Syrian passport was found near the body of an attacker outside one of the targeted sites,…”
How convenient.
Just like the one that didn’t even get scorched at the Twin Towers.
The handy passport story again
“A Syrian passport was found near the body of an attacker outside one of the targeted sites, the Stade de France, according to a police source, CNN affiliate France 2 and other French media reported.”
1. This is CNN reporting the facts. That says it all in terms of truth. (Which is to say, ALL LIES!)
2. Are we rehashing the World Trade Center story again with the passport thing? These “terrorists” have a habit of dropping their passports all over the place.
“Meanwhile, at least one American is among the Paris death toll, now at 129 people, officials said.”
Really? I heard 150 from other news outlets. Can’t they get their facts straight?
Once again, conflicting stories.
All of these point to evidence of false flag. Of course with CNN reporting, you know it’s staged to begin with.
I’d be real interested to know who exactly the dead really are.
It’s a convenient way for rothschild to get rid of opponents….
-flek