France bombs Islamic State as Valls warns of more attacks

After intelligence input from the U.S., 10 French fighter jets struck targets including an Islamic State command base in Raqqa, Syria, on Sunday evening. At least one of the attackers probably arrived in Europe as a refugee from Syria last month, French prosecutors said.

"We will act on all fronts to destroy Islamic State," Valls said in an interview on RTL radio. "We know that there are operations that were being prepared and that are being prepared again, not only against France but also against other European countries."

Less than a year after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, at least 129 people were killed in seven locations across the Paris area on Friday night in Europe's worst terrorist attack in a decade. With security forces on high alert across the continent, Group of 20 leaders meeting in Turkey pledged to step up action against terror groups while German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged European governments to keep offering asylum to those fleeing violence in Islamic State's Middle Eastern base.

Stocks in Europe rebounded from earlier declines and the euro recovered most of its drop versus the yen as investors assessed the fallout from the shootings. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index was less than 0.1 percent higher at 9:45 a.m. London time after dropping as much as 0.8 percent. The euro was 0.2 percent weaker at 131.77 yen, having earlier touched a six-month low.

Organized in Syria

Security agencies across Europe and the U.S. are racing to piece together how teams of coordinated gunmen and suicide bombers evaded heightened security to strike in the heart of one of Europe's most heavily policed cities. The total number of people who carried out and provided support for the assaults is still unclear, according to a French government official who asked not to be identified in line with internal policy.

A manhunt is intensifying for Abdeslam Salah, a 26-year-old suspect born in Brussels, as French investigators chase down leads in the Belgian capital. A road patrol may have stopped and checked a car containing Salah and let him go, prosecutors said late Sunday. One of seven attackers killed during the violence on Friday was identified as Brahim Salah, prosecutors said.

The remains of a suicide bomber found at the Stade de France, north of the French capital, matched the fingerprints of a person registered by Greek authorities as an asylum seeker in October, the Paris prosecutors' office said in an e-mailed statement. A Syrian passport in the name of Ahmad Al Mohammad, a 25-year-old born in Idlib, Syria, was found at the stadium, though the authenticity of the passport must still be verified, the statement said.

At least 17 people have been arrested so far in connection with the attacks. Seven were detained in Belgium, where two cars used in the attacks were rented. Also apprehended were seven relatives of 29-year-old French citizen Omar Ismail Mostefai, who died participating in the shootings at the Bataclan music venue. At least three people were taken into custody in Toulouse, Agence-France Presse reported.

Police Raids

Police raided locations in Paris, Calais, Toulouse, Grenoble and Jeumont, near the Belgian border, Al-Jazeera reported. About 200 counter-terrorism officers surrounded an address in Toulouse where ammunition and a large amount of cash was found, the television channel said.

Of the seven attackers who died on Friday, officials have so far identified five. In the meantime, details are emerging about the extent of Islamic State's involvement.

"The attack was organized, conceived and planned from Syria," Valls said.

Law-enforcement and intelligence officials have reviewed communications by the assailants and have concluded that they had been in contact with members of Islamic State in Syria, according to a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity. Officials said they have not uncovered any intelligence pointing to attacks in the U.S., but have long expressed concerns about the group's desire to strike so-called soft targets.

The Belgian connection may worsen security officials' fears that the country has become a hub for Islamic extremism. The nation of about 11 million has the highest per-capita number of citizens fighting in Syria or Iraq of any western European state, the London-based International Center for the Study of Radicalisation said earlier this year.

Homegrown Radicals

Meanwhile, concerns over the radicalization of members of France's Muslim population, Europe's largest, will intensify if French citizens are confirmed to have played a major role in Friday's events. All three attackers in January's assault on Charlie Hebdo in Paris, which killed 17, were French-born.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said three distinct groups of attackers were operating in and around the capital on Friday night: a trio of suicide bombers at the Stade de France stadium, gunmen who killed 89 at the Bataclan, and a third group who drove between nearby bars and restaurants, riddling people with bullets.

Source: Bloomberg