Police on the track of suicide bombers

Days after the devastating Friday the 13th attack in Paris police are on the track of the suicide bombers who opened fire in three locations, killing 129 people and injuring hundreds more. French police on Saturday named the first attacker as 29-year-old Omar Ismail Mostefai, who was identified from a severed finger found at Bataclan concert hall, scene of the worst of the bloodshed. Mostefai, born in the poor Paris suburb of Courcouronnes as one of four brothers and two sisters, had eight convictions for petty crimes but had never been imprisoned. Prints found on a finger in the Bataclan matched those in police files.

Meanwhile, the investigation widened across Europe, with Belgian police arresting several suspects and German authorities probing a possible link to a man recently found with a car of explosives. The discovery of a Syrian passport near the body of one attacker has raised suspicions some of the assailants might have entered Europe as part of an influx of people fleeing Syria’s civil war. The attacks sent shock-waves around the world, with many landmark buildings lit up in the red, white and blue of the French national flag in a show of solidarity.

President Francois Hollande has vowed that France will wage “merciless” war on the Islamic State(ISIS) group, after the jihadists claimed responsibility for the attacks Friday night. Hollande, who declared three days of national mourning and raised the nation’s security to its highest level, said France, which is part of a US-led coalition bombing suspected IS targets in Syria and Iraq “will be merciless toward the barbarians of Islamic State group.” The Islamic State group claimed responsibility in an online statement in Arabic and French circulated by supporters. The authenticity of the admission, has not been officially confirmed.