French police raid 168 sites, more than 100 under house arrest

A total of 168 locations across France have been raided overnight, the French interior minister said.

Bernard Cazeneuve added that 104 people have been placed under house arrest in the past 48 hours.

He said: “It’s just a start, these operations are going to continue, the response of the Republic will be huge, will be total. The one who targets the Republic, the Republic will catch him, will be implacable.”

Meanwhile, a major action with heavily armed police is under way in the Brussels neighbourhood of Molenbeek amid a manhunt for a suspect of the Paris attacks.

Police arrested three suspects in Molenbeek on Saturday and continued house searches. The special action began early on Monday.

Neighbours were told to stay away from the street where masked police have sealed off a section.

A Belgian man had earlier been identified as the suspected mastermind of the attacks.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud is also believed to be linked to thwarted attacks on a Paris-bound high-speed train and a church in the Paris area, an official said.

Seven people are in custody in Belgium suspected of links to the attacks and an international arrest warrant has been issued for Belgian-born Frenchman Salah Abdeslam, 26, who is believed to be involved in the attacks. He is still at large.

France has urged its European partners to move swiftly to boost intelligence sharing, fight arms trafficking and terror financing, and strengthen border security in the wake of the attacks.

Harlem Desir, the top French official in charge of European affairs, told reporters on Monday that “clearly, decisions must be taken”.

He underlined the need for “co-operation in matters of intelligence, (between) police and the judiciary, the fight against terrorism on European territory”.

Mr Desir spoke in Brussels ahead of talks with European Union foreign ministers.

He said that “France was attacked, but all of Europe was hit. We were hit together, and we will respond together.”

Mr Desir’s comments came after Turkish authorities said they flagged one of the suicide bombers in the Paris attacks to their French counterparts back in 2014 but received no response.

Omar Ismail Mostefai was identified as a possible “terror suspect” in October 2014, a Turkish official said, adding that French authorities were notified in December 2014 and in June 2015.

Turkey had no response from France until after the Paris attacks when it requested information on Mostefai. the official added.

The Turkish official said Mostefai entered Turkey in 2013 but authorities have no record of him leaving. He said Mostefai’s case shows that intelligence-sharing and effective communication are crucial to counter-terrorism efforts.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said Mostefai had been flagged as having ties to Islamic extremism five years ago.

French authorities have also released the names of two more potential suicide bombers involved in the attacks. One was born in Syria, while the other was a Frenchman wanted as part of a terrorism investigation.

France launched its heaviest airstrikes on the Islamic State group’s de-facto capital in Syria in the wake of the attacks, which killed 129 people on Friday.

French prime minister Manuel Valls said “we are at war” against terrorism.

Sunday night’s airstrikes destroyed a jihadi training camp and a munitions dump in the city of Raqqa, where Iraqi intelligence officials say the attacks on Paris were planned.

Twelve aircraft including 10 fighter jets dropped a total of 20 bombs in the biggest air strikes since France extended its bombing campaign against the extremist group to Syria in September, a Defence Ministry statement said.

The jets launched from sites in Jordan and the Persian Gulf, in co-ordination with US forces.