Investigators in France and beyond have begun making arrests as they piece together the identities and back stories of the terrorists who killed more than 120 people in gun and bomb attacks across Paris.
And the clues and evidence appeared Sunday to be piling up.The French channel BFMTV, a CNN affiliate, reported that authorities had found three Kalashnikov automatic rifles were found in an abandoned car in the eastern Paris suburb of Montreiul that was believed to have been used by perpetrators of the attacks.
And CNN’s Christiane Amanpour reported that Europe’s worst nightmare is now taking place — that Islamic extremist group ISIS is making good on its pledge to hide operatives among the wave of refugees now entering Europe.
The first bomber to blow himself up at the Stade de France on Frida was Syrian, and he landed with migrants on the Greek island of Leros on October 2, where he was issued an emergency passport under the name Ahmad al-Mohammad. The fingerprints on that passport matched those of the Stade de France bomber, Amanpour said, citing an unnamed French senator who was briefed by the Ministry of the Interior.
European officials believe, Amanpour said, that there is “a very professional new squad of terrorists inserting themselves into some of these migrant voyages.”
The two others who detonated themselves that the stadium carried false Turkish passports, Amanpour reported.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for Friday night’s coordinated series of deadly assaults, the worst violence in France since World War II.
Officials are still trying to figure out who the assailants were and how they planned and carried out near-simultaneous massacres at restaurants, bars and a concert hall in the French capital without being detected by intelligence agencies.
One of the suicide bombers has been identified as Ismael Omar Mostefai, according to Jean-Pierre Gorges, the mayor of the French town of Chartres. Mostefai lived in Chartres at least until 2012, Gorges, who is also a member of Parliament, said in a Facebook post Saturday.
One attacker identified as French
The news agency Agence France-Presse reported that Mostefai was the same attacker who was described Saturday by Paris prosecutor Francois Molins, something CNN has not confirmed independently.
Molins, who did not identify the attacker by name, said he was a 29-year-old French citizen with a criminal record from the southern Paris suburbs.
The attacker was involved in the assault and hostage taking at the Bataclan concert hall, where the highest number people were killed Friday, according to the prosecutor.
The man, who was identified by fingerprints, was believed to have been radicalized in 2010 but had never been accused of terrorism, Molins said.
Agnès Thibault Lecuivre, the Paris prosecutor’s spokeswoman, told CNN that six people — all family relatives of Mostefaï — have been detained.
It is common practice in criminal cases in France to place family members in custody. Mostefaï’s relatives have been neither charged nor arrested.
Raids in France, Belgium
As investigations into the attacks gathered speed Saturday, authorities detained people in France and Belgium.
In Belgium, raids were conducted in a Brussels suburb, Justice Ministry spokeswoman Sieghild Lacoere said. A car rented in Brussels was found near one of the sites of the Paris attacks, which triggered the raids, Lacoere said.
At least one of the raids was connected to the Paris attacks, according to a Western intelligence source who is in contact with French and Belgian intelligence services. The other raids were connected to people known to Belgian intelligence, the source told CNN.
Some of the Paris attackers were also known to Belgium intelligence, the source said.
Also Saturday, CNN affiliate BFMTV reported that the father and a brother of one of the attackers had been taken into custody. And AFP reported that the two men were detained after police raided their homes 80 miles (130 kilometers) east of Paris. CNN has not independently verified that the men were picked up by authorities.
A man who rented a VW Polo used by terrorists at the Bataclan was intercepted at the border with Belgium, according to Molins, the Paris prosecutor. The man, who was driving a different vehicle when he was caught, is a French citizen living in Belgium and was accompanied by two other people, Molins said.
‘An act of war’
“The skies have been darkened by the horrific attacks that took place in Paris just a day and a half ago,” U.S. President Barack Obama, in Turkey for a meeting of the G20 group of countries, said Sunday in a joint media appearance with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“As a NATO ally, we have worked together to bring about pressure on ISIL even as we also try to bring about a political transition inside of Syria that can relieve the suffering of so many people and eliminate the environment in which ISL can operate,”Obama said.
The G20 leaders are expected to focus largely on terrorism in the wake of the attacks in Paris.
French President Francois Hollande has called the shootings and bombings, some of which targeted an international soccer game he was attending, “an act of war.” He has vowed merciless revenge on ISIS, which France is already bombing in Iraq and Syria as part of the U.S-led coalition against the militant group.
The French government has declared a state of emergency and announced three days of mourning for the victims of Friday’s bloodshed.
But many leaders seem to agree that Friday’s attacks in Paris mean the threat to many Western countries has increased.
In the UK on Sunday, British Home Secretary Theresa May is set to chair a meeting of the Cobra crisis response committee in London. Prime Minister David Cameron is in Turkey for the G20. Cobra meetings are held to discuss urgent security matters and comprise senior figures from the British government and head of intelligence and security agencies.
The violence that hit six different sites around Paris has deepened the trauma for Parisians, who had already been shaken by a series of terrorist attacks in January that left 17 people dead.
People were still out around the city Saturday, some posing for selfies along the Seine and stealing a kiss in front of the Eiffel Tower. But the tower itself — like many other tourist attractions, shops and public buildings — has been closed in the aftermath of the attacks.
Fears terror isn’t over
Security has been stepped up, with military reinforcements drafted in.
There has been an outpouring of support and solidarity in Paris but large gatherings in the streets have not materialized, partly because the state of emergency prohibits them.
Sadness and fear are taking a toll, Paris Deputy Mayor Patrick Klugman said.
“We don’t know yet if this terror in fact is over or not,” he told CNN, highlighting the jitters caused by unsubstantiated rumors circulating on social media.
In addition to the 129 people killed in Paris, 352 were injured, at least 99 seriously, Molins said Saturday.
The dead include many French citizens, three Chileans, two Belgians, two Mexicans, two Spaniards, two Portuguese, an American and a Briton.
Questions over passports found near attackers
In an online statement distributed by supporters Saturday, ISIS said eight militants wearing explosive belts and armed with machine guns attacked selected areas in the French capital.
Seven of the terrorists were killed, mostly by blowing themselves up, according to French officials. The attackers are believed to have operated in three teams.
The scale and coordination of Friday’s wave of deadly assaults inside a major Western city, coming soon after ISIS’ claim of taking down a Russian airliner in Egypt, appear to represent a deeply disturbing increase in the extremist group’s capabilities.
A Syrian passport belonging to a 25-year-old man was found near the body of an attacker outside one of the targeted sites, the Stade de France, where the soccer game was being played, French authorities said.
The passport belonged to a person who had been processed on the Greek island of Leros, Greek Deputy Minister of Citizen Protection Nikos Toskas said Saturday. Officials are still examining the passport to determine if it is legitimate and whether it belonged to one of the attackers, U.S. law enforcement officials told CNN.
The Serbian Interior Ministry said Sunday that the holder of the Syrian passport found at the Stade de France had entered Serbia on October 7 and sought asylum.
A source close to the investigation told CNN that an Egyptian passport was found on another attacker. “There is strong assumption that these passports are fake,” the source said.
U.S. officials say they are waiting for corroboration from DNA and fingerprint tests to help positively identify the attackers, something that will take some time.
The FBI is running through databases an initial batch of names that could be those of the attackers or people associated with them, according to U.S. law enforcement officials. So far none of those names are known to the United States as terrorism suspects, the officials said.