Hollande Urges Emergency State Extension, Constitutional Changes
Local Editor
Russian President Francois Hollande said Monday France would step up the battle against the "ISIS" group in Syria in the wake of Paris attacks he dubbed "acts of war."
Hollande told an exceptional meeting of both houses of parliament he would meet US President Barack Obama and Russia's Vladimir Putin in the coming days and called for a UN Security Council meeting over the fight against "ISIS" terrorists.
A grave Hollande said the attacks in the French capital that killed 129 people "were acts of war."
They "were decided and planned in Syria, prepared and organized in Belgium and perpetrated on our soil with French complicity," he said.
In response, France would "intensify" operations in Syria, Hollande said a day after French jets pounded "ISIS" targets in the group's Syrian stronghold of Raqa, its first military response to the Paris carnage.
"We will continue the strikes in the weeks to come," Hollande told lawmakers.
In the fight against the extremists, Hollande said he wanted increased international assistance.
"I will meet in the coming days with US President Obama and President Putin," he said.
Turning to measures within France, he said he would ask parliament to consider extending a state of emergency by three months.
His long and solemn speech culminated in a rendition by lawmakers of the Marseillaise, the French national anthem.
France and Belgium staged dozens of raids on suspected extremists on Monday as Paris struggled back to its feet and the prime minister steeled the nation for more bloodshed.
In the southeastern French city of Lyon, police found "an arsenal of weapons," including a rocket launcher and Kalashnikov assault rifle.
More than 100 people have been placed under house arrest, 23 arrested and 31 weapons seized, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.
As authorities scrambled to find those responsible, the grieving French tried to return to the humdrum of daily life.
Mountains of flowers and candles have been laid at the scenes of the attacks and in front of businesses that lost loved ones.
"We need to understand how this barbarism can exist and why France is paying this heavy price," David Boy, a 52-year-old advertising agency boss said, his lips trembling as he lingered at one of the memorials on his way to work.
Metro trains were packed with commuters, pupils returned to schools and museums reopened, although a national state of emergency remained in place.
Much of the investigation's focus has swung to Belgium.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the attacks were "prepared abroad and involved a team situated on Belgian territory and who may have benefited from... complicity in France."
Police released the photo of 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, one of the three brothers linked to the attacks, who is thought to be on the run.
One brother blew himself up in the Bataclan and was identified from a severed finger, while the third was arrested in Belgium but released without charge.
The brothers lived in the rundown Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek, which has a reputation as a hotbed of extremist militancy and where police have made several arrests.
Five of seven known attackers have been identified, but it is unclear if other gunmen involved fled after the attacks which are believed to have been carried out by three teams.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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