French President Francois Hollande called on the United States and Russia to join forces to destroy Islamic State in the wake of Friday’s attacks across Paris that killed at least 129 people, and announced a wave of measures to combat terror in France.
In a sombre speech to both houses of parliament after the coordinated suicide bombings and shootings that sent shock waves across the world, Hollande said he would increase funds for national security, strengthen anti-terror laws and boost border controls.
“France is at war. But we’re not engaged in a war of civilisations, because these assassins do not represent any. We are in a war against jihadist terrorism which is threatening the whole world,” he told a packed chamber at the gilded Versailles Palace near Paris on Monday.
Parliamentarians gave Hollande a standing ovation before singing the national anthem in a signal of political unity following the worst atrocity in France since World War II.
“The faces of the dead people, of the wounded, of the families don’t leave my mind,” Hollande declared after France and many allies observed a minute of silence in honour of the 129 killed and 350 wounded when three teams of IS attackers targeted the national stadium, a rock concert and four nightspots on Friday with assault gun fire and suicide bombs.
“In my determination to combat terrorism, I want France to remain itself. The barbarians who attack France would like to disfigure it. They will not make it change,” Hollande declared. “They must never be able to spoil France’s soul.”
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying they were in retaliation for French airstrikes in Iraq and Syria over the past year.
Hollande said French forces would intensify its assaults and said he would meet US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the coming days to urge them to pool their resources.
“...We must combine our forces to achieve a result that is already too late in coming,” Hollande said.
A US-led coalition has been bombing Islamic State for more than a year. Russia joined the conflict in September, but US officials say it has mainly hit foreign-backed fighters battling its ally President Bashar al-Assad, not Islamic State.
Hollande said he would present a bill on Wednesday seeking to extend the prevailing state of emergency - granting the police and military greater powers of search and arrest, and local governments the right to suspend demonstrations and impose curfews - for another three months.
Speaking in Turkey at the same time as Hollande, Obama called Friday’s attacks a “terrible and sickening setback”, but insisted the US-led coalition was making progress.
“Even as we grieve with our French friends... we can’t lose sight that there has been progress being made,” Obama said at a Group of 20 summit.
Much of France came to a standstill at midday for a minute’s silence to remember the dead. Metro trains stopped, pedestrians paused on pavements and office workers stood at their desks.
Investigators have identified a Belgian national living in Syria as the possible mastermind behind the attacks, which targeted bars, restaurants, a concert hall and soccer stadium, with Brussels seen as the springboard.
“Friday’s act of war was decided upon and planned in Syria, prepared and organised in Belgium and carried out on our territory with the complicit of French citizens,” Hollande said.
Prosecutors have identified five of the seven dead assailants -- four Frenchmen and a foreigner fingerprinted in Greece last month. His role in the carnage has fuelled speculation that Islamic State took advantage of a recent wave of refugees fleeing Syria to slip militants into Europe.
Police believe one attacker is on the run, and suspect at least four people helped organise the mayhem.
“We know that more attacks are being prepared, not just against France but also against other European countries,” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls told RTL radio. “We are going to live with this terrorist threat for a long time.”
Islamic State warned in a video on Monday that any country hitting it would suffer the same fate as Paris, promising specifically to target Washington.
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