Activists confirm airstrikes on Raqqa

Activists say a new wave of airstrikes have struck the northern Syrian city of Raqqa the de facto capital of the Islamic State group.

The witness said, however, that no civilians were killed or injured, but that they are frightened because they can’t understand why the U.S.-led airstrikes are not targeting actual Islamic State targets.

On Tuesday, Russia’s security service said a homemade explosive device brought down a passenger plane over Egypt last month that killed 224 people, calling it a “terrorist” act.

French police stand guard as people gather to look at the Eiffel Tower that is lit with the blue, white and red colours of the French flag in Paris, France, in tribute to the victims of a series of deadly attacks on Friday. They were organized in Belgium and perpetrated on our soil with French complicity with one specific goal: “to sow fear and to divide us”, Hollande told Parliament in a rare joint session convened at the Palace of Versailles.

Ten Rafale and Mirage 2000 fighters carried out the raid at 0030 GMT, dropping 16 bombs, the defence ministry said.

However, Iraqi intelligence officials told the AP they provided other details to France, including that attackers had been trained specifically for Friday’s attack and were deployed from Raqqa.

In Paris, video footage confirmed that a ninth man took part in the attacks – meaning a second assailant could still be on the run alongside fugitive Salah Abdeslam, unless the man is one of two suspected accomplices being held in Belgium.

The president met visiting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday morning to press his call for separate U.S.-led and Russian-led coalitions in Syria to combine forces and give priority to fighting Islamic State.

– November 17: Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russian bombers hit Islamic State positions in Raqqa and Deir el-Zour, to the southeast. The European Union executive will reassess the French budget plan once Paris has put figures on its additional defense and security costs. Determined to root out jihadists within French communities, Hollande said he would present a bill Wednesday seeking to extend a state of emergency – granting the police and military greater powers of search and arrest, and local governments the right to ban demonstrations and impose curfews – for another three months. “The coalition strikes are much more precise, but the Russian strikes are like the regime’s strikes – indiscriminate”, said the resident, contacted by Skype.

In addition to the suspect on the run, police believe at least four other people helped organize the mayhem.

Investigators identified two more extremists involved in the assault, including a Frenchman previously charged with planning a terror attack and a suicide bomber found with a Syrian passport, which has yet to be authenticated.

Belgian media have reported that Salah Abdeslam spent time in jail for robbery five years ago alongside Abaaoud. Two then detonated suicide vests as police stormed the building, then fatally shot the third attacker. His radicalization underlined the trouble police face trying to capture an elusive enemy raised in its own cities.