France liftoffs air strikes in Syria

France liftoffs air strikes in Syria

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Smoke rises over Syrian town of Kobani after an airstrike, as seen from the Mursitpinar border crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border in the town of Suruc in this file October 18, 2014 file photo. A U.S.-led military coalition has been bombing Islamic State fighters who hold a large swathe of territory in both Iraq and Syria, two countries involved in complex multi-sided civil wars in which nearly every country in the Middle East has a stake. The Turkish military and police had declared the Turkish-Syrian border area a "military zone", which limits the ability of the press to move around. In these days of modern warfare, the weaponry is more powerful than that in the old days. So all of my colleagues and I have to be doubly careful to ensure we do not end up in the line of fire, as positions of Kurdish YPG fighters and IS militants change quickly. For all those reasons, to stay away is the only solution at the moment. We ended up on hills about 2km (1.24 miles) away from Kobani using very long telephoto lenses, often more than 1000mm, to get a peek into the city while listening to the sound of war and smelling its scent. Sometimes you see a shadow of a fighter hiding behind a building and more often you see the massive impact of heavy airstrikes. It is a bit strange sitting there with lenses I usually use for sports photography alongside people from the area, who come to the hills to see what's going on. They bring binoculars and make tea - making it almost seems like a tourist attraction. - Kai Pfaffenbach REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach (TURKEY - Tags: MILITARY POLITICS CONFLICT TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) ATTENTION EDITORS: THIS PICTURE IS PART OF THE PACKAGE 'PICTURES OF THE YEAR 2014 - THE PHOTOGRAPHERS' STORY'. SEARCH 'PHOTOGRAPHERS' STORY' FOR ALL IMAGES' - RTR4FOX1

French warplanes pounded Daesh or Islamic State positions in Syria on Sunday as police widened their investigations into coordinated attacks that killed more than 130 people.

Daesh has claimed responsibility for Friday’s suicide bombings and shootings, which have re-ignited a row over the refugee crisis in Europe and brought calls to block a huge inflow of Muslim asylum seekers.

French police have started a global search to get a Belgian-born man they consider helped organise the assaults with two of his brothers. While the second one is under arrest in Belgium among the brothers died in the strikes, a judicial source said.

An additional two French suicide attackers have been identified, authorities said, while four other assailants’ identity, who all died in the violence, was still under review.

France is bombing Islamic State positions in Iraq and Syria for months within a U.S.-led operation. Following Friday’s mayhem, Paris vowed to destroy the group. Underlining its resoluteness, French jets on Sunday launched their largest raids reaching its stronghold in Raqqa.

One of the targets were a munitions depot and training camp, it said.

There was no word on casualties or the damage inflicted.
Few strategists expected change or a drawn-out economic impact in prevailing market ways, although the Paris strikes were seen causing a short term selloff in international stock markets on Monday.
The investigation into the attacks of Friday, the worst atrocity in France since World War Two, led quickly to Belgium after authorities found that a couple of the automobiles employed by the militants had been leased in the Brussels region.

By Sunday, Belgian officials said they had arrested seven individuals in Brussels. But one of the folks who’d hired the automobiles slipped through the fingers of law enforcement. World was pulled over on the French-Belgian border on Saturday, but after released.

Cops named the man they were seeking as Salah Abdeslam, saying the 26-year old was “dangerous”. French authorities said he was a French national, although he was born in Brussels.

“The abject strikes that hit us on Friday were prepared abroad and mobilised a team in Belgium that benefited … from help in France,” French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told reporters after meeting his Belgian counterpart in Paris.

Stunned by the carnage, thousands of men and women thronged at four where the assaults took place, putting flowers and lighting candles to remember the dead.

“It’s all so senseless. She had only just got married.”

The death toll increased with three more people expiring on Sunday. Some 103 happen to be identified, including many foreigners and many young folks, out relaxing in one of the world’s most visited cities on a Friday night.