France launched “massive” airstrikes against the Islamic State’s de facto capital in Syria on Sunday as French and Belgian police hunted a fugitive who was among the perpetrators of Friday’s bloody wave of suicide bombings and shootings in Paris.
As evidence mounted of a sophisticated, multinational terror operation with links to at least three European countries and the Middle East, 12 French aircraft including 10 fighter jets dropped a total of 20 bombs on a jihadi training camp and munitions dump in the city of Raqqa.
A French defence ministry statement said the strike, launched in coordination with US forces from airfields in Jordan and the Persian Gulf, was the biggest since France extended its bombing campaign against the extremist group to Syria in September.
Meanwhile in Paris, French police had 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, which killed 129 people and left more than 350 injured, including nearly 100 critically. Belgian police also issued an international arrest warrant in Abdeslam’s name. » | Jon Henley in Paris and Ian Traynor in Molenbeek | Monday, November 16, 2015
