Paris Suspect’s Brother: Salah Abdeslam Should Turn Himself In

The site of the siege was less than 2km (around a mile) from the Stade de France, one of the locations targeted in Friday’s terror.

Police forces patrol near the landmark, the Arc de Triomphe, in Paris, Tuesday, November 17, 2015. Multiple attacks across Paris on Friday left scores dead and hundreds injured.

Islamic State, which controls swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq, has claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks, saying they were in retaliation for French air raids against their positions over the past year.

Paris and Moscow are not coordinating their air strikes, but French President Francois Hollande is due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on November 26 to discuss how their countries’ militaries might work together.

Beginning his speech with the words “France is at war”, Hollande declared: “We will defeat terrorism”.

France called upon its European Union allies Tuesday to assist in its military fight against the extremists.

The deadly Paris attacks have galvanized worldwide determination to confront the militants.

The French interior minister said the six failed plots were all planned from overseas with the intention that they would be carried out by jihadists living in Europe. “I remind you that Salah has never been able to tell his side of the story to the police and that he is therefore presumed innocent”.

Belgium has raised its terrorist alert level to 3 (out of a maximum of 4), the country’s Interior Ministry’s Crisis Center said late Monday.

On Wednesday, France’s justice minister updated the overall number of wounded in the Paris attacks to 368 people, up from 352.

Authorities have yet to announce the capture of anyone suspected of direct involvement in the slaughter, though police have used emergency powers to conduct nearly 300 searches since Sunday night that netted 127 arrests and 31 weapons.

Previously officials had not specified how many people were involved in the attack on the sidewalk bar on La Fontaine au Roi street, as well as the other night spots. It was the third vehicle identified as having possible links to the investigation.

The video was among evidence authorities used in concluding that at least one other attacker was at large, the French officials indicated. Defense lawyer Xavier Carrette told the APs that his client, 27-year-old Mohammed Amri, was arrested over the weekend and is being held on charges of terrorist acts and being part of a terrorist conspiracy.

A cease-fire between Syria’s government and the opposition could be just weeks away, Kerry said, describing it as potentially a “gigantic step” toward deeper global cooperation against IS.

Further reports have revealed that more than 100 people were killed at the Bataclan concert hall after three gunmen reportedly opened fire with automatic arms on Friday.

Officials said police had been hunting Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian Islamist militant accused of masterminding the November 13 carnage, but more than seven hours after the launch of the pre-dawn raid it was still unclear if they had found him.

Hollande said Syria has become “the biggest factory of terrorism the world has ever known and the worldwide community is still too divided and too incoherent”.

But Hollande urged the nation not to “give in to fear” or excessive reactions in the wake of the attacks.

French and other Western intelligence agencies face an urgent challenge to track down the surviving members of the three Islamic State units who inflicted the unprecedented bloodshed in France and, perhaps more importantly, to target their distant commanders in IS-controlled parts of Syria.

Two police sources say investigators believe the St. Denis group had been planning an attack on the French capital’s La Defense business capital.

One of his brothers blew himself up with a suicide vest in the Paris attacks. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

Abaaoud came to public attention previous year by boasting in an IS propaganda video about his pride in piling the dead bodies of “infidel” enemies into a trailer.