As France Grieves, Hunt for Suspects Escalates
The nation of France held a moment of silence across the country Monday, from the president to schoolchildren to businesses and bystanders.
The nation paused, and crowds gathered by a makeshift monument at the Republique Plaza in a neighborhood targeted by the attacks, to honor the 129 people murdered by ISIS terrorists Friday night.
France is still in shock from the horror of this weekend's coordinated attacks, but the nation is fighting back against the terrorist assault.
The French military launched major airstrikes on ISIS in Syria, and authorities raided 168 locations across France overnight, hunting down those responsible for the attacks.
French authorities detained two dozen suspects and also placed 104 people under house arrest in the past 48 hours.
They're feverishly searching for terrorists tied directly to the attacks who escaped after Friday's carnage, when police failed to catch one of the ringleaders at a checkpoint.
Police say a 26-year-old Belgian man named Salah Abdeslam rented the vehicle used by the attackers. His brother was among the suicide bombers.
Police had Abdeslam in their grasp early Saturday when they stopped a car carrying three men near the Belgian border, but they let him go after checking his ID.
French and Belgian jihadis, and at least one potential Syrian member of the sleeper cell, were being implicated Monday in the worst attack on French soil since World War II.
A French official identified the suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks as a Belgian named Abdelhamid Abaaoud.
Abaaoud is also reportedly linked to two thwarted attacks: one against a Paris-bound high-speed train, which was foiled by three young Americans in August, and the other against a church in the French capital's suburbs.
"All my life, I have seen the blood of Muslims flow," Abaaoud said in a video made public in 2014. "I pray that Allah will break the backs of those who oppose him, his soldiers and his admirers, and that he will exterminate them."
Heavily armed Belgian police launched a major operation in the Molenbeek neighborhood of Brussels, which authorities consider a focal point for extremists and fighters going to Syria from Belgium.
