PARIS: France launched new airstrikes on the Islamic State’s main stronghold in Syria on Tuesday and on the other hand police carried out more than 120 anti-terrorism raids throughout France as the country’s dual strategies took shape in the wake of the Paris attacks.
A French military spokesman, Col. Gilles Jaron, said the latest wave of airstrikes on the Islamic State’s de facto capital, Raqqa, destroyed a command post and training camp.
Meanwhile, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said authorities carried out 128 anti-terrorism police sweeps overnight as part of the widening crackdowns after the attacks that killed at least 129 people and wounded more than 350.
That brings the total to nearly 300 raids since Monday across France and neighboring Belgium, which has emerged as a possible hub for some of the Paris plotters. Cazeneuve said that “the majority of those who were involved in this attack were unknown to our services.”
He said 115,000 police and soldiers have been mobilized to protect French citizens. He pledged to boost funding for police equipment — which he said had dropped by 17 percent from 2007 to 2012, they reported.
France’s moves come one day after French leaders vowed to hunt down Islamic State militants behind last Friday’s attacks as European authorities intensified efforts to untangle a plot they believe leads back to Syria.
In a speech to French lawmakers on Monday, President François Hollande promised an unforgiving campaign against the Islamic State and proposed changes to France’s constitution to help authorities beat back militant threats.
“It is not about containing but about destroying that organization,” Hollande said before the members of parliament stood to sing the national anthem. “They are not out of our reach.”
“Friday’s acts of war were decided and planned in Syria,” he told parliament. “They were organized in Belgium and perpetrated on our soil with French complicity with one specific goal: to sow fear and to divide us.”
