This live blog will be ending shortly, but coverage will continue with my London colleague, Jessica Elgot.
New round of airstrikes against Isis
- The French military dropped 16 bombs on Isis targets in the stronghold of Raqqa, hitting a command centre and a training centre, the country’s defence ministry said.
- US strikes earlier hit 116 oil trucks in Eastern Syria, the first attack of its kind since US-led forces began targeting Isis in Syria.
- The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said he would back parts of the Syrian opposition with air support in a joint fight against Islamic State in northern Syria.
Belgium - Spain friendly football match cancelled
- Citing security concerns for players and fans, the Belgian football association announced Tuesday’s friendly match, scheduled to be played in Brussels, had been cancelled.
- The France - England match at Wembley stadium is going ahead, with vastly increased security.
UN, Obama hit back at worldwide calls to turn back refugees
- The UN has said that refusing refugees after the Paris attacks is not the “way to go”, as politicians in US, Canada and eastern Europe call to scale back plans to accept refugees.
- About 25 US state governors have resisted or refused to take Syrian refugees, but their legal right to do so has been called into question.
François Hollande calls for change to French constitution
- The French president, François Hollande, said France would intensify strikes against Islamic State in the coming days, as France “was at war” with Isis
- France demands a rapid implementation of “coordinated and systematic controls” of the EU’s internal and external borders, he said.
- Hollande said he wanted French law to allow dual nationals to be stripped of their French citizenship if they were convicted of terrorism and called for the French constitution to be rewritten.
Obama rules out boots on the ground
- The US president, Barack Obama, has said he will defy critics who have called for him to send in ground troops to defeat Isis, saying it would go against the advice of his military strategists.
- Isis has released what appears to be a new propaganda video, warning of an attack in Washington DC
- John Kerry will meet with French President François Hollande tomorrow.
Arrests made and suspects tracked across Europe
- Serbian authorities have arrested a man with a Syrian passport matching one found near the body of a Paris attacker.
- French forces raided the north-eastern city of Strasbourg, after witnesses claimed to have seen fugitive suspect Salah Abdeslam.The raid did not yield Abdeslam.
- A French official has identified the alleged mastermind of the Paris attacks as Belgian-born Abdelhamid Abu Oud.
- Two of the seven people detained in Belgium on Saturday are being held on terrorism charges, Belgian federal prosecutors have said. Five have been released, including the brother of two of the suspected attackers.
- After being released by Belgian police along with five others, Mohamed Abdeslam, said his family is unaware of his brother (fugitive suspect) Salah’s whereabouts.
- German authorities have arrested an Algerian asylum seeker, who they allege told associates early last week that bomb attacks were coming to Paris.
French police name more attackers
- Paris prosecutors have identified two more suicide bombers from Friday’s attacks as Ahmad Almohammad and Samy Amimour, a French national.
- Syrian passport holder Almohammad, who is said to have blown himself up at the Stade de France, reportedly passed with refugees through the Greek island of Leros.
- A Turkish official has told the Guardian that Turkey twice informed French authorities about the suicide bomber Omar Ismaïl Mostefai, but only received an information request about him from France after the Paris attacks.
- French police continue to hunt for Salah Abdeslam, believed to beone of three brothers involved in Friday night’s attack, who is on the run. A major Belgian raid on a street in Molenbeek, in the Brussels suburbs, did not locate him.
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Tragedy should galvanise Europe, says US defence secretary
Echoing a call to arms from French president, François Hollande, on Monday night, Ash Carter, the US defence secretary, said America was continuing to look for opportunities to strike at the terrorists but needs its European allies to make bolder moves to defeat the group militarily.
In his first public comments since 129 were killed in the coordinated assault on the French capital, Carter said the attacks had “galvanised” France into taking bolder action against Isis and cooperating further with the US and that he hoped it would have the same effect on other European partners.
“We’re looking to do more, we’re looking for every opportunity we can to get in there and go at [Isis], but we need others to ... get in the game as well,” Carter said.
“I’m hoping that this tragedy has the effect of galvanising others as it has galvanised the French,” Carter said, speaking at a forum in Washington.
I posted earlier that around 25 US governors were now refusing or resisting Syrian refugees being resettled in their states, with some calling for a reevaluation of security and screening processes. Others have gone further in their reasoning.
New Jersey governor Chris Christie said no Syrian refugees should be allowed into the US - even orphaned babies and toddlers.
“I don’t think orphans under 5... should be admitted into the United States at this point. But you know, they have no family here. How are we going to care for these folks?” Christie said in an interview.
“But in the end, I don’t trust this administration to effectively vet the people that they’re asking us to take in.”
Governor of Minnesota, Mark Dayton hasn’t objected to Syrian refugees in his state as long as they undergo rigorous screening, but presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee disagrees.
Huckabee has told Fox News radio Syrians shouldn’t be brought to Minnesota because it’s cold.
“Can you imagine bringing in a bunch of Syrian refugees who’ve lived in the desert their whole lives that are suddenly thrown into an English speaking community? WHere it’s maybe in Minnesota where it is 20 degrees below zero? I mean I just don’t understand what we possibly can be thinking.”
Huckabee’s concern for the warmth of refugees followed comments he made in another Fox interview, that “it’s time to wake up and smell the felafel” and that the US is “importing terrorism.”
Butch Otter, governor of Idaho, said it made no sense to allow people “who have the avowed desire to harm our communities, our institutions and our people” into his community.
Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker said he was “not interested in accepting refugees from Syria.”
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