7 people detained related to Paris attacks

French foreign minister Laurent Fabius says France had the “legitimacy” to take action against Islamic State after Friday’s terror attacks in Paris.

The attacks, carried out at a stadium where the French national soccer team was playing Germany, a concert hall where the US band Eagles of Death Metal was playing, and at restaurants and cafes, were prepared in Belgium and the suspects received help in France, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Sunday. A third brother, Mohammed, was one of seven alleged plotters arrested in Belgium.

Also, the fact that there were three rifles indicates that more than eight terrorists carried out the attacks, as the French authorities claim.

Police had on Saturday identified the first of the attackers, naming him as 29-year-old Paris native Omar Ismail Mostefai and saying he was involved in the attack on the Bataclan music venue where 89 people were killed.

According to the wanted poster, the man was named Abdeslam Salah, 26 years old and he was suspected to be the man who rented the black Polo auto used during the shootings Friday night in Paris, the police said. As of this writing, it has been retweeted more than 42,000 times.

It’s not clear why the local French police, known as gendarmes, didn’t take Abdelslam into custody. “That’s what struck me, his childish face, very determined, cold, calm, frightening”.

Once the attackers paused to reload, his group ran across the stage to the emergency exit, helping a wounded woman out.

At a G20 summit in Turkey, U.S. President Barack Obama vowed to step up efforts to eliminate Islamic State and prevent it from carrying out attacks like those in Paris. Eighty-nine people were killed at the hall.

The hunt for remaining members of the terrorist cell was focussed on Belgium, where at least three French nationals believed to be involved in the plot were living.

The investigation sprawled well beyond France’s borders, since Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins said a few attackers mentioned Syria and Iraq. But far-right populist Marine Le Pen is now making gains by blaming France’s security problems on immigration and Islam. Flags were lowered and Notre Dame Cathedral – closed to tourists like many Paris sites – planned a special church service later Sunday for families of the victims. Well-wishers heaped flowers and notes on a monument to the dead in the neighbourhood where attackers sprayed gunfire on cafe diners and concert-goers.

Yet even in their grief, residents were defiant about the lifestyle that has made their city a world treasure. Although Paris was quiet and jittery, Bas meant to go out for a drink – “to show that they won’t win”.

Police said they found a Syrian passport near one of the dead men. It’s a route tens of thousands of people fleeing war and poverty in Syria and elsewhere have been using.

The news revived a furious a row within the European Union on how to handle the flood of refugees.

“By spreading out migrants through the villages and towns of France, there is a fear that terrorists will take advantage of these population flows to hit out at us”, she said after meeting the French president on Sunday.