Multiple casualties reported in central Paris shooting, explosion

[gryphon]

https://twitter.com/BuzzFeedAndrew/s...59456156532736


One of the attackers had come to France as a refugee from Syria......Trudeau needs to stop his plan or we are all in danger

[Patty Smyth]

https://twitter.com/BuzzFeedAndrew/s...59456156532736


One of the attackers had come to France as a refugee from Syria......Trudeau needs to stop his plan or we are all in danger

Harper wanted to bring in 10,000 would you say the same now to him.

[Patty Smyth]

Attachment 298003

The Eiffel tower did not turn off it's lights.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/tomphillips/...De3#.kbGAKrXBD

The video that was widely shared of the Eiffel Tower’s lights being switched off wasactually from January, in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks.

[Natalka]

Harper wanted to bring in 10,000 would you say the same now to him.

Harper wanted to take more time, he knew it was important. Not being in a hurry like Trudeau just because he upped the bidding in the pre-election process. Hoping Trudeau realizes that people here won't mind if he doesn't meet his end of Dec. deadline.

[Natalka]

32m ago01:10



Leaders around the Arab world condemned Friday’s attacks in Paris. King Abdullah of Jordan voiced his “anger over the cowardly terrorist attack in the French capital,” while the Saudi King sent his condolences to French President François Hollande.

But Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that Friday’s attacks in Paris were a result of France’s backing of the Syrian opposition in its quest to topple his regime.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Assad told a visiting delegation of French lawmakers and journalists that he was ready to cooperate with the French government in the battle against Islamic State, if the French abandoned their stated goal of regime change in Syria.

“Act in the interest of your people,“ Mr. Assad said, referring to the foreign policy of French President François Hollande. ”The first question asked by every French citizen today is, ‘Have the French policies over the past five years brought any good to the French people?’ The answer is no, so what I ask him to do is to act in the interest of the French people—which means changing his policies.”

[Patty Smyth]

Harper wanted to take more time, he knew it was important. Not being in a hurry like Trudeau just because he upped the bidding in the pre-election process. Hoping Trudeau realizes that people here won't mind if he doesn't meet his end of Dec. deadline.

I don't think anyone believes bringing in 25K before xmas was doable and I hope people realize our pulling out the planes will take time also.

Anyhoo if this becomes a full blown NATO mission we have to be in. I think it is heading that way.

[Patty Smyth]

double post

[Darth Penguin]

France responds with airstrikes against IS

This new video shows French fighter jets taking off from Jordan to carry out the raids on Raqqa.
Ten jets dropped a total of 20 bombs in the biggest French airstrike since the country extended its bombing campaign against Isis.


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French fighter jets take off to carry out raid on Isis targets in Syria.

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34m ago00:49
French defence ministry statement on Raqqa strikes

Here is the statement from the ministry on tonight’s assault on the Isis capital in Syria (with my own translation, apologies for any errors and please do alert me @Claire_Phipps if you spot any).
Chammal is the name of the French military operation against Isis in Iraq.
In French

Chammal : destruction de 2 camps d’entraînement en Syrie
Dimanche 15 novembre 2015 à 19H50 et 20H25, la force Chammal a frappé des infrastructures opérationnelles tenues par Daech à Raqqah en Syrie. Les 2 objectifs visés par les frappes ont été détruits.
Le raid était constitué de 12 aéronefs français, dont 10 avions de chasse, qui ont été engagés simultanément à partir des Emirats arabes unis et de la Jordanie. 20 bombes ont été délivrées.
Planifiée sur des sites préalablement identifiés lors des missions de reconnaissance réalisées par la France, cette opération a été conduite en coordination avec les forces américaines.
Le premier objectif détruit était utilisé par Daech comme poste de commandement, centre de recrutement djihadistes et dépôt d’armes et de munitions. Le deuxième objectif abritait un camp d’entraînement terroriste.
In English

Operation Chammal: destruction of two training camps in Syria
On Sunday 15 November 2015, at 7.50pm and 8.25pm, Operation Chammel hit infrastructure held by Daesh [Islamic State] in Raqqa, Syria. The two targets were destroyed.
The raid was made up of 12 French aircraft, 10 of which were fighter jets, which left simultaneously from the UAE and Jordan.
Twenty bombs were dropped.
Targeted on sites previously identified on reconnaissance missions by France, this operation was carried out in conjunction with US forces.
The first target destroyed was used by Daesh as a command post, a recruitment centre for jihadists, and a depot for arms and ammunition.
The second target was a terrorist training camp.

Updated at 12.59am GMT

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50m ago00:33
Martin Farrer

It is set to be a wobbly day on the world’s financial markets in the wake of the Paris attacks.
The euro has dipped against the dollar in early trading in Asia and is currently down 0.6% at $1.0705. It was also weaker against the yen.
In the share market, Australia’s benchmark ASX/S&P200 index has already opened and is down 1.3%.
Futures trading points to a sharp drop when trading starts in Japan and Korea.
“Stocks that are angled towards consumer goods or tourism, notably the luxury industry with the Christmas season, could be affected,” IG France analyst Alexandre Baradez told Reuters.
“The January [Charlie Hebdo attacks] were different, they were more targeted. Here they were aiming at an entire population,” he added.
“There may also be a purely psychological effect that pushes investors to stay on the sidelines until more clarity emerges.”


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1h ago00:27
Raya Jalabi

French daily Le Parisien has spoken to people at the Hyper Cacher market in Paris, which was targeted last January by Amedy Coulibaly, following the shooting at the offices of Charlie Hebdo.
Coulibaly held several people hostage and killed four. He was subsequently killed by police who raided the market.

“Yes, of course, this revives things within us, says Edmond, 50, who came to do his shopping. Even if we try doing everything to live like before, because that’s the only way to move on. I was coming here before the attacks in January, and I’ve come back, naturally. As always, life carries on. It’s also true that we feel reassured to see security forces nearby…”
With a basket under his arm, a young local was heading towards the market. “I lost one of my friends here, Yohan Cohen. Today, my thoughts are all jumbled, and I’m thinking about these other young people, dead and wounded, in Paris and Saint-Denis. We must live and resist.”
Coming from Nogent, a regular client, Victor, is no longer in the mood to resist. “The attacks in January here, we thought it was a nightmare of the past, but we are reliving exactly the same thing … Maybe it will awaken the spirit of the French.
“Yesterday, my wife and I decided that we were going to move. Go to Israel. Yes, over there, they live the same thing every day, but they are protected and are reacting.”

Read the full story here (in French).


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1h ago00:21
The attackers and the manhunt: latest

A number of the suspects have now been identified:

• Omar Ismaïl Mostefai, a 29-year-old Frenchman of Algerian heritage and grew up in Courcouronnes, just south of Paris. Read more about him here. He was one of the terrorists who died in the Bataclan music venue after slaughtering concert-goers.
• French and Belgian police have released a wanted notice for Salah Abdeslam, a 26-year-old man born in Brussels, thought to be one of three French brothers living in Belgium who were involved in the attacks. Salah Abdeslam and two men he was travelling with were pulled over by police in a routine check near the French-Belgian border just hours after the attacks. They were allowed to continue their journey because none of their names were yet on any wanted list. Salah, who rented a Belgian-registered VW Polo parked outside the Bataclan, is now on the run.

French police issued a photograph of Salah Abdeslam, a French national wanted in connection with the attacks in Paris. Photograph: Imago / Barcroft Media/imago/PanoramiC

• French media reported that another of the brothers, named as Ibrahim Abdeslam, died in the attacks.
• The third Abdeslam brother – as yet unnamed – was arrested in Brussels.
• Two more of the seven suicide bombers who died in the assaults had also been identified, police said, without confirming their names.
• The Washington Post named another suicide bomber as Bilal Hadfi, whose nationality was not known but who was thought to have fought in Syria.

Investigators earlier found three Kalashnikov automatic rifles and quantities of ammunition inside a second Belgian-registered car, a black Seat Leon, reportedly rented to one of the brothers and used in Friday’s attacks before being abandoned on a street in the eastern Paris suburb of Montreuil.


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1h ago00:10
So far, 103 bodies of those who died in the attacks on Paris have been identified.
With the death toll currently standing at 129, this means 26 people have still not yet been named.
French prime minister Manuel Valls said the remaining victims would be identified “in the coming hours”.
Speaking outside the Ecole Militaire where a centre has been set up for the victims’ families, Valls said:

These are not anonymous victims. They are lives, young people, who have been targeted while they spent a quiet evening in a café, or at a concert.
No psychologist, no volunteer, no doctor can console them [the families]. But we must help them with the process, with identifications, to accompany them … through all the administrative tasks.

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1h ago23:59
Raya Jalabi

The state of emergency in France is expected to last three months, various government officials told the press on Sunday, with a vote to continue it due in 12 days’ time.

— Nicolas Chapuis (@nicolaschapuis) November 15, 2015 Valls a confirmé aux parlementaires que l'Etat d'urgence sera prolongé pour trois mois. Donc avec un vote dans 12 jours.

The state of emergency was first declared in France in 1961, at the height of the Algerian war. It was most recently used in 2005 during the three-week long riots which spread from the Paris suburbs across high-rise estates throughout France.
Hollande’s declaration was a significant step for France, because of the law’s ugly origins. When the Algerian people rose up in October 1954 in its war for independence (the country had been a French colony), it was treated as a civil war by French authorities. This led to the creation of a law in 1955 to create a state of emergency. Most of the times it was used were during the seven years of that war.
Some of the conditions of the current state of emergency:

• Public gatherings have been banned in Paris until 19 November, Le Monde reported.
• Local governments can impose a curfew
• Border controls – which nominally do not exist between countries within the Schengen zone of the EU – will be in effect.
• Local police are also able to search houses without a warrant
• One provision allows for the state – if it issues an additional decree – to “control” the press. “It is not clear whether this provision has ever been used other than to seize Algerian newspapers in 1955, or precisely what it allows for,” Vox reports.

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2h ago23:48
Why the attack on Raqqa now?
The city is the de facto capital of Islamic State within Syria.
Various reports quote senior Iraqi officials saying that France and other countries had been warned on Thursday of an imminent attack.
Associated Press reports that an Iraqi intelligence dispatch had warned that Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had ordered his followers to immediately launch gun and bomb attacks and take hostages inside the countries of the coalition fighting them in Iraq and Syria.
An important caveat: the Iraqi dispatch, which was obtained by the AP, provided no details on when or where the attack would take place, and a senior French security official told the AP that French intelligence gets these kinds of warnings “all the time” and “every day”.
However, Iraqi intelligence officials told the AP that they also warned France about specific details: among them, that the attackers were trained for this operation and sent back to France from Raqqa.
The officials also told AP that a sleeper cell in France met with the attackers after their training and helped them to execute the plan. There were 24 people involved in the operation, they said: 19 attackers and five others in charge of logistics and planning.
None of these details have been corroborated by officials of France or other Western intelligence agencies. The Guardian is still working to verify them.


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2h ago23:42
'Nothing stood out' about Paris attacker Omar Ismail Mostefai

Angelique Chrisafis

The Guardian’s Angelique Chrisafis has visited Courcouronnes and Chartres, both previously home to Omar Ismail Mostefai, the first of the attackers to be identified, and sends this dispatch:

The beige, two-storey, housing association house in a quiet cul-de-sac in the French cathedral city of Chartres was as unremarkable as Omar Ismail Mostefai himself had seemed to neighbours when he lived there for several years until 2012.
“His wife didn’t work and they had a very young daughter, nothing stood out,” said the couple who lived opposite. “He was 25 at the time. He always wore trainers and a cap, he was tall, he had long hair and a short beard and didn’t dress in a religious way.
“He didn’t work regularly, he had temporary jobs. There didn’t seem to be anything odd. He didn’t have visits,” the woman said.
Three years after his neighbours last saw him, Mostefai, 29, was one of three unmasked men who pulled up in a black Polo car in Paris on Friday night, and entered a rock gig at the Bataclan concert hall before opening fire on the crowd with Kalashnikovs.
Terrified survivors spoke of utter “carnage”, in which the men shot at random and, when people threw themselves to the ground, turned their automatic weapons on them and kept firing. At least 89 people died there in the bloodiest of the coordinated attacks.

Read the profile of Moustafai in full:
'Nothing stood out' about Paris attacker Omar Ismail Mostefai

Neighbours did not perceive anything odd about him, but, like previous French terrorist killers, he had appeared on a police radicalisation file


Read more





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• Paris attacks
• France
• Europe
• Paris
• Syria
• Middle East and North Africa

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[Jina]

New video from ISIS threatening Washington and other countries
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0T51AM20151116

[Natalka]

^ Not a surprize, but ick.

Oh, this is just awful. A man's selfie, doctored to look like an attacker

http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/pari...shop-1.3320327

[Natalka]

François Hollande calls for change to French constitution

• The French president, François Hollande, said France would intensify strikes against Islamic State in the coming days.

• France demands a rapid implementation of “coordinated and systematic controls” of the EU’s internal and external borders, he said.

• Hollande said he wanted French law to allow dual nationals to be stripped of their French citizenship if they were convicted of terrorism and called for the French constitution to be rewritten.

[lecale]

The BBC has a good explainer

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29052144

Thankfully there are not many of these guys, but their influence is spreading.

[beachdown]

Must suck to be from Beirut...how come they aren't getting the same love? This is an indication of the type of society we live in today i.e. impartiality

The Eiffel tower did not turn off it's lights.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/tomphillips/...De3#.kbGAKrXBD

The video that was widely shared of the Eiffel Tower’s lights being switched off wasactually from January, in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks.

[Natalka]

23m ago10:32



France invokes an EU treaty provision requesting mutual assistance from other EU countries.

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said EU partners could help “either by taking part in France’s operations in Syria or Iraq, or by easing the load or providing support for France in other operations.”


“France cannot act alone in these theatres,” Le Drian told fellow EU defence ministers during a meeting in Brussels, according to aides.


France is the first nation to invoke article 42-7 in the treaty, which requires all states to offer aid and assistance “as they are able.”

The EU’s Lisbon treaty says that in the case of a “armed aggression” EU countries have “an obligation of aid and assistance by all means in their power”.

[beachdown]

The face of evil



http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/paris-a...ices-1.3321551