UN, European Union step up fight against IS after Paris attacks

A handbag found in the debris after the raid of the apartment contained a passport in the name of Hasna Ait Boulahcen, authorities said.

Belgian authorities still hunt for 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, the brother of a Paris attacker who self-detonated.

The measures include allowing police to carry weapons when they are off duty and use them in the event of an attack – providing they wear a police armband to avoid “any confusion”.

Meanwhile, police in Turkey have detained three suspected IS militants, including a Belgian citizen who is accused of acting as a scout for planners of the attacks in Paris.

Cazeneuve said Abaaoud had been in Syria in 2014 and was the subject of an worldwide warrant issued by Belgium, but no European countries notified France when Abaaoud had returned to Europe, apparently passing through Greece. In the USA, the Republican-dominated Congress on Thursday voted to ban Syrian and Iraqi refugees from entering the United States until tougher screening measures are in place.

While investigations into Abaaoud’s exact role in the Paris attacks are still underway, European leaders are scrambling to understand what went wrong.

One week after the coordinated gun and bomb assault that killed 130 people in Paris, investigators were still piecing together details on the assailants and how they converged in the city.

The French Parliament has extended the state of emergency for a further three months from 26 November.

A Wednesday morning raid on an apartment in Paris’ Saint-Denis neighborhood may have raised more questions than it answered.

Belgium’s government crisis center has raised the terrorism alert to its highest level, amid concerns that at least one suspect in the Paris attacks may be at large in Belgium.

Investigators believe Abaaoud, a Moroccan-born Belgian who had fought for Islamic State in Syria, was the mastermind behind the shootings and bombings at the national soccer stadium, a famous concert venue and several bars and restaurants.

The phone contained a text message sent to somebody French officials believe was Abaaoud about the time the attack started, saying: “It’s on”.

French media reported on Saturday that Aitboulahcen may not even have been involved in the plot, only being asked by Abaaoud to find a hideout as a last resort.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who briefed reporters with Comey in Washington, said that since 2013 more than 70 people have been charged for actions related to “foreign fighter interests and homegrown violent extremism”.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said “terrorists are crossing the borders of the European Union”, underlining the urgent need for the 28-nation bloc to implement a long-delayed system for collecting and exchanging airline passenger information.

“We must not rule anything out, there is also the risk from chemical or biological weapons”, he said on Thursday, though he did not cite any specific intelligence on such a threat.

“It is entirely possible for a strong proposal to be completed before the end of 2015”, Claude Moraes, the chairman of the assembly’s civil liberties committee told The Associated Press.