PARIS ATTACKS: Francois Hollande urges US and Russia to fight Islamic State with France

France wants to unite with the US and Russia in a grand coalition dedicated to fighting Islamic State (IS), French president Francois Hollande has said.

The announcement came as authorities worldwide struggled to pinpoint those responsible for the deadliest attacks on France since the Second World War.

Hollande said: “The faces of the dead people, of the wounded, of the families, don’t leave my mind.”

He spoke after France and many allies observed a minute of silence in honour of the 132 killed and 350 wounded when three teams of IS attackers targeted the national stadium, a rock concert, and four nightspots with assault gun fire and suicide bombs on Friday.

“In my determination to combat terrorism, I want France to remain itself,” said Hollande. “The barbarians who attack France would like to disfigure it. They will not make it change. They must never be able to spoil France’s soul.”

Hollande also said he would present a bill on Wednesday seeking to extend the 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.

In neighbouring Belgium, the base for many of the attackers, police surrounded a suspected hideout for a man identified as a driver for the attackers, 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, but came up empty after charging into the property.

In Paris, officials identified the alleged Belgian mastermind of the attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who is believed to be beyond reach in Syria.

Earlier on Monday, thousands clasped hands outside some of the bullet-riddled nightspots as children returned to school and city authorities vowed to resume normal life as quickly as possible.

In a powerful symbolic move, the Eiffel Tower reopened to tourists after a two-day shutdown.

Hollande said the US and Russia needed to set aside their policy divisions over Syria and “fight this terrorist army in a single coalition”.

He said he hoped to meet soon with US president Barack Obama and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, although he did not specify whether they would all meet together.

As France intensified its air strikes overnight on suspected IS power bases in Syria, police struggled to achieve a breakthrough in their hunt for militants who survived Friday’s assaults.

Six blew themselves up with suicide belts, while police shot a seventh dead.

Iraqi officials said their intelligence agency suggested that 19 attackers and five back-up activists committed the carnage, an assertion not publicly supported by Western intelligence agencies.

France has issued an arrest warrant for Abdeslam, who was identified as the alleged driver of a rental car that delivered attackers to a rock concert inside a nightclub in which 89 died.

That car, rented by Abdeslam, was found abandoned on Paris’ east side with several assault rifles and clips of ammunition still inside.

French border police had stopped him on Saturday but unwittingly allowed him to travel on to Belgium, unaware of an arrest warrant that had been issued in Paris that described him as extremely dangerous.

Belgian police yesterday donned balaclavas and assault rifles as they mounted a tense hours-long standoff outside Abdeslam’s suspected hideout in the Brussels district of Molenbeek but made no arrests after storming the residence.

One of Abdeslam’s brothers, Brahim, blew himself up outside a Paris restaurant, killing one civilian, during Friday night’s attack.

Another brother, Mohamed, was detained by Belgian police but released without charge yesterday.

His lawyer, Nathalie Gallant, said Mohammed Abdeslam “didn’t make the same life choice” as his brothers and had not been “tempted into jihadism”.

In France, police using emergency powers said they raided 168 properties and arrested 127 people, 104 of whom were placed under house arrest, in search of members of a suspected sleeper cell of IS activists.

French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said police seized a Kalashnikov assault rifle and other weapons during the overnight raids.

Paris remains on edge amid three days of official mourning. French troops have deployed by the thousands in support of police to restore a sense of security in one of the world’s most visited cities.