France strikes IS targets, broadens probe into Paris terror attacks

PanARMENIAN.Net - French warplanes pounded Islamic State positions in Syria on Sunday, November 15, as police in Europe widened their investigations into coordinated attacks in Paris that killed more than 130 people, Reuters reports.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for Friday's suicide bombings and shootings, which have re-ignited a row over Europe's refugee crisis and drawn calls to block a huge influx of Muslim asylum-seekers.

French police have launched an international hunt for a Belgian-born man they believe helped organize the assaults with two of his brothers. One of the brothers died in the attacks, while the second is under arrest in Belgium, a judicial source said.

A further two French suicide attackers have been identified, police said, while the identity of four other assailants, who were all killed, was still under review.

"The raid ... including 10 fighter jets, was launched simultaneously from the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. Twenty bombs were dropped," the Defense Ministry said. Among the targets were a munitions depot and training camp, it said. There was no word on casualties or the damage inflicted.

The investigation into Friday's attacks, the worst atrocity in France since World War Two, led swiftly to Belgium after police discovered two of the cars used by the Islamist militants had been rented in the Brussels region.

By Sunday, Belgian officials said they had arrested seven people in Brussels. But one of the people who had hired the cars slipped through the fingers of the police. He was pulled over on the French-Belgian border on Saturday, but later released.