In the wake of the Paris attacks and numerous governors vowing to not allow Syrian refugees into their states, the House will vote on a proposal that could affect Iraqi and Syrian refugees’ entry into the United States.

From The Post’s Karoun Demirjian:

But the Obama administration on Wednesday issued a veto threat, arguing the legislation “would provide no meaningful additional security for the American people” and only “create significant delays and obstacles in the fulfillment of a vital program that satisfies both humanitarian and national security objectives.”

The bill is based on legislation drafted by Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) that would require the FBI, Homeland Security Department and National Intelligence director to report to Congress that none of the refugees that have been cleared to enter the country are a security threat. The FBI also would have to certify that adequate background checks were conducted on the Syrians and Iraqis seeking to relocate to the United States.

“It would mean a pause in the program until we can be certain beyond any doubt that those coming here are not a threat,” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) said on Wednesday. “It’s that simple and I don’t think it’s asking too much.”

But the administration warned in its veto threat that the bill “would unacceptably hamper our efforts to assist some of the most vulnerable people in the world, many of whom are victims of terrorism” – as well as undermine efforts to address the refugee crisis in other countries seeing far greater inflows, such as Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon.

Read more here.

A spokesman with the New York City Police Department said a newly released Islamic State video shows old footage of New York City and it “reaffirms the message that New York City remains a top terrorist target.”

But spokesman J. Peter Donald added there is “no current or specific threat to the city at this time” and authorities “will remain in a heightened state of vigilance.”

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, in a statement, said “New Yorkers won’t live in fear and people should continue to go to work, live their lives, and enjoy the greatest city in the world.”

Here’s the statement:

Stoking fear is the goal of terrorist organizations, but New York City will not be intimidated. The NYPD is the most capable police force in the country, with a robust counterterrorism operation that was just strengthened with an investment of 500 additional officers. While Times Square and Herald Square appear in the video, the NYPD in conjunction with all of our partners are taking all necessary security precautions in these areas and areas across the City. New Yorkers won’t live in fear and people should continue to go to work, live their lives, and enjoy the greatest city in the world.

The Post’s Liz Sly explores whether it’s too late to solve the “tangled mess the Middle East has become in the four years since the Arab Spring plunged the region into turmoil.”

From her Baghdad dispatch:

What Jordan’s King Abdullah II referred to as a “third world war against humanity” has, more accurately, become a jumble of overlapping wars driven by conflicting agendas in which defeating the Islamic State is just one of a number of competing and often contradictory policy pursuits.

In those four years, four Arab states — Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen — have effectively collapsed. Civil wars are raging in all of them. World powers have lined up on different sides of those wars. And the chaos has given the heirs to the legacy of Osama bin Laden the greatest gift they could have hoped for: the gift of time and space.

Aided by the disinterest of a world wearied and wary after the failings of the Iraq war, an assortment of al-Qaeda veterans, hardened Iraqi insurgents, Arab jihadist ideologues and Western volunteers have moved into the vacuum left by the collapse of governments in Syria and Iraq and built themselves a proto-state. It can hardly be said to count as a real state, but it controls territory, raises taxes and maintains an army.

Any responses now “are very late in the game,” said Shadi Hamid of the Brookings Institution in Washington. “The costs of inaction have accumulated, and we can’t undo the damage of the past four years.”

Read her entire story here.

People around the world came together to comfort one another and show solidarity with those affected by the Paris attacks:

Two marches planned during upcoming climate change talks are banned due to security concerns, said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, according to the Associated Press.

The government has not authorized marches in Paris and other French cities Nov. 29 and Dec. 12 “to avoid extra risk,” he said in a statement.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP 21, will take place in Le Bourget, France, starting Nov. 30. Civil society events will go on, according to organizers:

Organizers urged people to hold “mobilizations” outside of France, and said they were considering other options for the now-canceled marches.

The Post’s Hugh Naylor writes about why the heavy French bombardment of Raqqa, the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed capital, appears to have inflicted minimal damage:

… After over a year of U.S. coalition airstrikes, the Islamic State has learned to secure its weapons, communications systems and fighters in fortified bunkers or densely populated residential areas where bombing would inflict intolerably high civilian casualties, analysts and activists said.

The French attacks highlight a limitation of air power, said Theodore Karasik, a Dubai-based expert on military issues in the Middle East. Rarely is it enough to subdue enemies, he said.

“The Islamic State, like any other terrorist group, has adapted and developed its own underground networks in order to safeguard their prized assets,” Karasik said.

“Airstrikes can be effective, but you need a ground component to go along with them.”

Read more here.

The Fix’s Philip Bump writes about a new national poll from Bloomberg News, conducted after the Paris attack:

The most politically powerful data point in the new poll, though, is the one dealing with the possibility of Syrian refugees being resettled in the United States. More than half of Americans oppose the existing plan to allow 10,000 refugees to enter the country — with nearly 70 percent of Republicans holding that position.

Read more here.

Jean-Michel Fauvergue, chief of the elite police unit that carried out Wednesday’s raid on an apartment in a Paris suburb, gave a blow-by-blow account of the operation in an interview with Le Figaro newspaper.

The Washington Post, citing two senior European officials, reported that the raid resulted in the deaths of at least two suspected terrorists, including Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the alleged ringleader of Friday’s terrorists attacks in Paris. Three other suspects were arrested.

Fauvergue heads the police counterterrorism unit known as RAID, for Research, Assistance, Intervention, Deterrence.

“We knew that [Abaaoud] was perhaps there. Other services gave us that information,” Fauvergue told Le Figaro. He said the word was that two men and a woman were in the apartment and that they were armed with AK-47 assault rifles and explosive vests.

The raid started at 4:16 a.m. with an attempt to blast open the third-floor apartment door with explosives, but the reinforced door would not open properly, and the element of surprise was lost, he said. The terrorists inside then blocked the door with a heavy object.

Hundreds of shots were exchanged, and the terrorists also threw grenades, he said. The police then decided to send in a dog, Diesel, but it was killed with a shotgun.

According to the account, six sharpshooters were posted on surrounding buildings. One of them saw one of the terrorists and ordered him to raise his hands. He refused and opened fire with a Kalashnikov. The sharpshooter wounded him with a shot, but the terrorist continued firing.

Then the woman let loose a long volley of shots, followed by a big explosion. The windows were blown out, and part of a body fell on one of the police cars in the street. No police were injured by the blast.

About five hours into the siege, police could hear only one Kalashnikov firing. The second person shooting was dead. Police then decided to use 40mm flash-bang grenades designed to deafen and stun, throwing about 20 of them into the apartment.

Police also used a drone and two robots to try to do reconnaissance, without much success. There were holes in the floor, so the commandos passed cameras up through them from the second floor. One of the bodies fell through to the second floor. It was badly mutilated by explosions.

On the third floor landing, two men were found hiding under laundry and debris. They were arrested.

“Five of our men were wounded” by bullets or shrapnel, none seriously, Fauvergue said. About 70 police commandos participated in the raid, out of 110 police in all on the scene.

The Islamic State’s coordinated attacks across Paris that left 129 dead were a clear indication of the  “group’s adoption of global terror tactics to boost its profile and strike back at its enemies.”

To really understand that Islamic State and how the group operates, we recommend you read these five stories:

1. The hidden hand behind the Islamic State militants? Saddam Hussein’s., by Liz Sly

Yes, there has been a huge influx of foreign fighters joining the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. But the real decisionmakers aren’t foreigners, but former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime.

Even with the influx of thousands of foreign fighters, almost all of the leaders of the Islamic State are former Iraqi officers, including the members of its shadowy military and security committees, and the majority of its emirs and princes, according to Iraqis, Syrians and analysts who study the group.

2. The U.S.-Islamic State propaganda wars, by Greg Miller and Scott Higham

Islamic extremist propaganda went from Osama bin Laden’s long sermons from a cave to highly produced Islamic State recruiting videos. The U.S., on the other hand, tried to counter or thwart the extremist message but is still struggling. Even though the United States has killed bin Laden and thwarted mass-casualty attacks after Sept.11, 2001, “Al-Qaeda’s brand of militant ideology, however, has only spread.”

3. Life under the Islamic State: Spoils for the rulers, terror for the ruled, by Kevin Sullivan

“The Islamic State has drawn tens of thousands of people from around the world by promising paradise in the Muslim homeland it has established on conquered territory in Syria and Iraq,” writes Sullivan. But the reality is quite different:

The militants have created a brutal, two-tiered society, where daily life is starkly different for the occupiers and the occupied, according to interviews with more than three dozen people who are now living in, or have recently fled, the Islamic State.

Continue to read about education in the “Caliphate,” how women are treated, what the economy is like and what type of justice system exists.

4. In Libya, the Islamic State’s black banner rises by the Mediterranean, by Missy Ryan

In the time after Moammar Gaddafi was removed from power, the Islamic State has built a stronghold in the region. Sirte, the hometown of Gaddafi, today is “a subdued, fearful place, residents say, where the streets are deserted after dusk. Militants have closed banks and schools. Music and smoking are outlawed, and violations of minor rules are met with fines or beatings. More ominous, Islamic State fighters have shown levels of violence previously unseen in Libya.”

5. An American family saved their son from joining the Islamic State. Now he might go to prison., by Adam Goldman

A teenager from Texas tries to join the Islamic State, makes it to Turkey, but then calls his father and says: “I want to come home.” Nineteen-year-old Asher Abid Khan does make it home, but now faces up to 30 years in prison.

Before trying to join the Islamic State, Khan had an exchange with a friend where he asked, “Where is Isis do you know? Bc i might go early.” The exchange between his friend Suied is worth a read:

The mayor of Roanoke has requested that local governmental and nongovernmental agencies “suspend and delay” assistance to Syrian refugees. And then, in explaining his position, he invoked World War II Japanese internment camps.

“I’m reminded that President Franklin D. Roosevelt felt compelled to sequester Japanese foreign nationals after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and it appears that the threat of harm to America from Isis now is just as real and serious as that from our enemies then,” Mayor David Bowers (D) wrote in a letter, the Roanoke Times reported.

Read more from The Post’s Rachel Weiner here.

The text of the letter, which the Roanoke Times posted here, is below:

Roanoke is a welcoming city and America is the melting pot of the world, and right and successful we have been at both.

However, since the recent terrorist bombing of the Russian airliner, the attacks in Paris and now with the murderous threats to our nation’s capital, I am convinced that it is presently imprudent to assist in the relocation of Syrian refugees to our part of Virginia.

Thus, today, I’m requesting that all Roanoke Valley governments and non‐governmental agencies suspend and delay any further Syrian refugee assistance until these serious hostilities and atrocities end, or at the very least until regarded as under control by U.S. authorities, and normalcy is restored.

I’m reminded that President Franklin D. Roosevelt felt compelled to sequester Japanese foreign nationals after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and it appears that the threat of harm to America from Isis now is just as real and serious as that from our enemies then.

I further want to assure our citizens that Roanoke’s law enforcement and public safety agencies are and will be prepared to the best of their ability to assure our citizens that everything is and will be done to protect Roanokers from harm and danger from this present scourge upon the earth.

In this regard, at least for awhile into the future, it seems to me to be better safe than sorry.

Sincerely,

David A. Bowers
Mayor

In a radio ad released Wednesday, Donald Trump accuses President Obama and other politicians of “losing the war on terrorism” and promises to “quickly and decisively bomb the hell out of ISIS.” ISIS is an alternative acronym for the Islamic State militant group.

The minute-long ad, which will soon air in early primary states, features Trump’s voice over ominous instrumental music. He opens the ad by saying: “The tragic attacks in Paris prove once again that America needs to get tough on radical Islamic terrorism. President Obama and other politicians have consistently failed us. Just hours before the attacks in Paris, President Obama said ISIS has been contained.

“It’s amazing that the United States can have a president who is so out of touch, but it’s also dangerous. Obama has no strategy to defeat ISIS. And now he’s preparing to let hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria into the United States.”

Near the end of the spot, Trump adds: “And, yes, I will also quickly and decisively bomb the hell out of ISIS, will rebuild our military and make it so strong no one — and I mean, no one — will mess with us. If I win, we will not have to listen to the politicians who are losing the war on terrorism. We will keep America safe, and we will make America great again.”

Read more about the ad here.

A French sailor checks a jet fighter on the deck of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, which sailed Wednesday from Toulon to support international operations against the Islamic State. (Claude Paris/AP)

From DefenseNews:

PARIS — The French Navy’s Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier sailed Wednesday from Toulon naval base, south of France, and headed for the eastern Mediterranean to support coalition operations in Iraq and Syria.

The sailing, announced Nov. 5, has taken greater significance since the terrorist attacks here last week, as French President François Hollande has pledged to punish the ISIS forces which claimed responsibility for the killings.

“I am not talking about deterring the Islamic State but about eliminating it totally,” Hollande said earlier this week.

Here’s how it looked when the nuclear-power vessel, carrying 26 fighter jets, left for the eastern Mediterranean on Wednesday.

French soldiers patrol around the aircraft carrier at a military port in Toulon. (Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP via Getty Images)

French navy crew members on the docks in front of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier before its departure. (Jean-Paul Pelissier/Reuters)

French naval technicians work on the flight deck. (Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP via Getty Images)

(Sebastien Nogier/EPA)

Paris prosecutor François Molins described at a Wednesday news conference the massive police raid in the Saint-Denis suburb, saying that suspected ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud had “entrenched himself on the third floor” of the apartment building.

Molins said he could not provide the identities of the two people who died at the scene, but he added that neither Abaaoud nor another wanted suspect, Salah Abdeslam, were among the eight people — seven men and one woman — who were detained at the apartment and other locations Wednesday. Three people were arrested in the raid on the apartment, he said, one of whom had a gunshot wound in the arm.

Abaaoud was killed in the raid, according to two senior European intelligence officials.

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush on Wednesday called for “overwhelming force” to be used against the Islamic State militant group, including the deployment of ground troops.

“The United States should not delay in leading a global coalition to take out ISIS with overwhelming force,” Bush said in a speech at the Citadel, the famous military college, referring to the Islamic State by an alternative acronym. “As the words of French President [François] Hollande have made clear, the United States will not be alone in galvanizing this global effort. Militarily, we need to intensify our efforts in the air — and on the ground.”

“While air power is essential, it alone cannot bring the results we seek,” Bush said. “The United States — in conjunction with our NATO allies and more Arab partners — will need to increase our presence on the ground.”

Read more about Bush’s remarks here.

Bloomberg News has reported that on the same day as the Paris attacks, local emergency responders had gone through an exercise that simulated a mass shooting event. (Drills such as the one carried out Friday became regular occurrences after the Charlie Hebdo shootings in January, according to the report.)

Bloomberg News spoke with Mathieu Raux, emergency room chief at the Pitie-Salpetriere hospital in Paris, about Friday’s exercise. Reports Bloomberg:

During Friday’s exercise, trauma specialists used a centralized dispatch system to set priorities and direct victims to the ER best equipped to treat their injuries. Ambulance services made sure they were ready to roll, and hospitals verified that surgeons and staff could be quickly summoned to treat arriving victims. “We tested every link in the chain,” Raux said. Because Paris emergency physicians work 24-hour shifts, virtually every ER doctor on duty in the city Friday night had already taken part in the exercise earlier that day.

You can read the full report here.

French media reported that the woman who set off a suicide blast as security forces closed in Wednesday during an antiterrorism raid in Saint-Denis was Hasna Aitboulahcen. The 26-year-old French citizen was a cousin of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks.

Abaaoud, a Belgian extremist, was killed during the raid, according to two senior European intelligence officials.

Aitboulahcen, the suicide bomber, is a former manager of Beko Construction, a company in Epinay-sur-Seine, a town north of Saint-Denis. The company was closed in 2014.

Turkish soccer fans disrupted a moment of silence honoring the victims of the Paris attacks before their team drew, 0-0, against Greece in a friendly on Wednesday, according to The Washington Post’s Marissa Payne.

It was, Payne wrote, at least the second time this year that Turkish fans have whistled and chanted through a moment of silence honoring victims of terrorist attacks. In October, a group of fans disrupted a moment of silence before Turkey beat Iceland, 1-0, in a Euro 2016 qualifier. The moment of silence was held for the victims of attacks in the country’s capital, Ankara.

Read the full report here.

Over at WorldViews, Ishaan Tharoor took a look at what François Hollande has said about accepting Syrian refugees and how his statements compare with what is being said in the United States.

Writes Tharoor:

Hollande said it was France’s “humanitarian duty” to honor its commitments to refugees, even in the wake of the chilling terror attacks on Friday, claimed by the Islamic State, which killed at least 129 people.

“We have to reinforce our borders while remaining true to our values,” the French president said.

The message flies in the face of recent statements by American Republican presidential hopefuls and governors, who have all cited the security concerns surrounding the terror attacks as reasons to halt resettlement of Syrian refugees in the United States. Some have proposed only allowing in Christian refugees, at the expense of Muslim ones.

Read the full post here.

[Related: From sober to bellicose, Republicans differ in tone on terror threat]

This undated image taken from a militant Web site shows Abdelhamid Abaaoud. (Video via AP)

Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected architect of the Paris attacks, is dead, according to two senior European officials.

The Belgian national and Islamic State operative reportedly was killed Wednesday during a police raid north of Paris.

Here’s a statement from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, after incidents that have reportedly occurred in the wake of the Paris attacks:

“Following the terrorist attacks in Paris, I have noted with deep regret a number of highly disturbing acts aimed at certain Canadians, including the fire at the mosque in Peterborough, the smashing of windows at a Hindu temple in Kitchener, and the attack on a Muslim woman in Toronto.

“Diversity is Canada’s strength. These vicious and senseless acts of intolerance have no place in our country and run absolutely contrary to Canadian values of pluralism and acceptance.

“The Government of Canada strongly condemns such actions and, along with law enforcement agencies, will protect the rights of innocent Canadians being subjected to such abuse.

“Canadians understand that religious groups around the world suffer persecution regularly at the hands of violent extremists. Our focus must be on stopping the people responsible for the terror, and continuing to fight hate by embracing Canadian values.”

For more details on what has happened in Canada, see CTVNews and the Canadian Press.

Amedy Coulibaly, who killed five people in two attacks in France in January. (AP)

After the Charlie Hebdo and other attacks by gunmen in January, The Washington Post reported on France’s prisons having a reputation “as factories for radical Islamists, taking in ordinary criminals and turning them out as far more dangerous people.”

Soon after the January assaults in Paris and surrounding areas, it was revealed that some of the attackers served time together in a prison in France. The Post’s Moscow bureau chief visited that prison and had this report:

The poorly staffed prisons were an ideal place to spread violent ideology — in many ways, even better than outside the prison gates. Most prisoners spend up to nine hours a day mingling relatively unsupervised, guards say, first at work and then in the prison yard. French intelligence services pride themselves for their penetration of militant networks in their country — but prisons fall under a different umbrella, experts say, in which many radicals go unchecked, and even unnoticed, by guards.

Read the full story here.

One of Mohamed Abdeslam’s brothers blew himself up during last week’s Paris attacks. The other became the subject of a massive manhunt.

On Wednesday evening, Mohamed Abdeslam went to the balcony of his home in Molenbeek, Belgium, to light candles as thousands in the community gathered to commemorate the victims of the Paris attacks.

Mohamed Abdeslam, the brother of suspected Paris attackers Salah and Brahim Abdelslam, lights a candle on the balcony of his house in Molenbeek, Belgium, on Wednesday in memory of the attack victims. (Virginia Mayo/AP)

Mohamed Abdeslam, left, the brother of suspected Paris attackers Salah and Brahim Abdelslam, lights candles with an unidentified man on the balcony of his house in Molenbeek, Belgium, on Wednesday. (Virginia Mayo/AP)

From the Telegraph:

French health minister Marisol Touraine has provided an update on those injured during Friday’s Paris attacks.

Of the 352 injured, 195 remain in hospital, which includes 41 in intensive care.

Three are in a life-threatening condition.

The Post’s William Booth is on the ground in Molenbeek, the largely Muslim neighborhood in Belgium that is home to several suspects in the Paris attacks and linked to other acts of terrorism. There, thousands have gathered to pay tribute to the Paris victims.

Other photos from the ground capture the scene:

During an appearance on Fox News, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie put into stark terms the terrorism threat facing Americans.

“If they aren’t eliminated,” Christie said of the Islamic State militant group, “they’re coming for us. We know that. We lived this with al-Qaeda. We have seen this movie before, and we saw the ending. And it wasn’t pleasant.”

The Republican presidential hopeful also called for denying entry to refugees fleeing war-torn Syria “while we protect the homeland first.”

President Obama accused opponents on Wednesday of using last week’s Paris attacks opportunistically and not presenting substantive plans for addressing the crisis in Syria.

“They’ve been playing on fear in order to try to score political points or to advance their campaigns,” Obama said of the GOP. “And it’s irresponsible. And it’s contrary to who we are. And it needs to stop, because the world is watching.”

Of Obama, Christie said: “The president lives in a fantasy world.”

California-based Eagles of Death Metal — the band playing at the Bataclan the night of the Paris attacks — said it was “horrified and still trying to come to terms with what happened in France.”

“Although bonded in grief with the victims, the fans, the families, the citizens of Paris, and all those affected by terrorism, we are proud to stand together, with our new family, now united by a common goal of love and compassion,” the band members said in a statement posted Wednesday on Twitter and Facebook, adding that all future shows have been put on hold.

“Our thoughts and hearts are first and foremost with our brother Nick Alexander, our record company comrades Thomas Ayad, Marie Mosser, and Manu Perez, and all the friends and fans whose lives were taken in Paris, as well as their friends, families, and loved ones,” the band said.

Alexander was running merchandising sales for the band.

The band expressed gratitude to the French and U.S. authorities, “and especially all those at ground zero with us who helped each other as best they could during this unimaginable ordeal, proving once again that love overshadows evil…. Vive la musique, vive la liberté, vive la France, and vive EODM.”

Below you will find photos that show the site of Wednesday’s apartment raid in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis. In the pictures, you can see an investigator who appears to be searching for evidence.

(Joel Saget/AFP via Getty Images)

(Joel Saget/AFP via Getty Images)

(Joel Saget/AFP via Getty Images)

Sweden’s Security Police have raised their terrorist threat assessment by one level, to four on a scale of five, Reuters reported.

“One of the reasons for the increase is that the Security Police have received concrete information and made a judgement that we need to act within the framework of our counter-terrorism operations,” the agency said in a statement, according to Reuters.

The news agency explained that “level four means that there is a high probability that ‘persons have the intent and ability to carry out an attack.'”

It’s not clear whether those behind the attacks in Paris used encrypted channels of communication, but that hasn’t stopped some U.S. lawmakers and a number of state and local officials to call on Congress to act.

Today, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., who has been outspoken on how encrypted communications have stymied criminal investigations, will call on Congress to pass a law requiring the unencrypted content of any smartphone made or sold in the United States to be accessible to law enforcement officers with a search warrant.

Read the full story by Ellen Nakashima

The Associated Press on Wednesday reported a “visible increase in security around the Vatican,” including noticeable additions to Pope Francis’s personal detail.

The AP reports that the detail during Francis’s general audience had “nearly doubled,” and it noted that “the carabinieri were out in force in St. Peter’s Square.” The carabinieri are Italy’s military police.

The jump comes a few days after the attacks in Paris and ahead of the Jubilee Year, which begins Dec. 8.

The AP reports:

Italy is already planning to close the airspace over Rome during special Jubilee celebrations. Rome’s prefect, Franco Gabrielli, said Wednesday authorities were prepared to shoot down drones and ultralight aircraft if they violate the air space ban.

This undated image published in the Islamic State’s English-language magazine Dabiq shows Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian of Moroccan descent who is the suspected organizer of the Paris attacks. (Militant photo via AP)

It’s probably safe to say that most of France — if not the world — would like to to see Adelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks, dead or behind bars.

As the New York Times revealed Wednesday, Abaaoud’s own family members are no different.

When they received word last year that he had been killed fighting for the Islamic State militant group in Syria, the family “rejoiced” over the “excellent news about a wayward son it had come to despise,” the Times reported.

“We are praying that Abdelhamid really is dead,” his older sister, Yasmina, told the paper.

As it turned out, Abaaoud was not dead. Authorities allege that the 28-year-old graduate of one of Brussels’s most prestigious high schools would spend the next year slipping in and out of Europe plotting other attacks before Friday’s massacre in Paris.

Officials have not said whether Abaaoud was among the dead in a seven-hour siege in Paris’s Saint-Denis district on Wednesday morning that left two suspects dead. Seven others were arrested. Multiple suspects tied to the recent attacks were thought to be in the apartment at the time.

[Hunt for suspected Paris ringleader circles back to city on edge]

“For the moment, it is impossible to tell you the people who were arrested. We still need to determine who is who,” Paris prosecutor François Molins said.

This comes via the Associated Press, which reports:

A Spanish security official says French authorities have sent out a bulletin to police across Europe asking them to watch out for a Citroen Xsara car that could be carrying Salah Abdeslam, the fugitive wanted in the Paris attacks

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of department rules preventing the official from being named.

Spain’s El Espanol digital publication first reported the bulletin Wednesday, publishing a document with the car’s description and naming Abdeslam. It was sent by Spanish authorities to border control police in the northeastern Catalonia region next to France.

Here’s what a Citroen Xsara looks like, and here’s a link to the AP report.

The top trending topic on Twitter in France right now: #JeSuisChien.

The hashtag spread on social media after officials said a 7-year-old police dog named Diesel was “killed by the terrorists” in Wednesday’s raid in Saint-Denis.

The dog was shot at 5:30 a.m. with a “bullet meant for a wild boar,” according to a French police official.

#JeSuisChien (“We Are Dog”) — along with #JeSuisDiesel and #JeSuisUnChien — are, of course, adaptations of #JeSuisCharlie, a phrase that was embraced internationally to show solidarity after the massacre at Charlie Hebdo’s Paris offices in January.

https://twitter.com/jesuischien/status/666972812947693568

Not everybody has embraced the hashtags, though.

https://twitter.com/SickAndSunk/status/666984384478736385

The Washington Post spoke to a resident of Saint-Denis who describes hearing gunfire and watching French authorities mount a raid aimed at capturing suspects from the Nov. 13 Paris attacks.

France’s Interior Ministry said on Wednesday that authorities had conducted 118 raids and at least 25 arrests overnight. Thirty-four weapons were seized. That brings the total number of raids launched throughout France since Friday’s attacks to 414, the ministry said in a statement.

Regular operations have resumed at Copenhagen’s airport, where earlier Wednesday a terminal had been evacuated.

According to a post on Twitter, the evacuation of Terminal 3 had been “called off,” but travelers could expect delays.

Here’s the Associated Press, with more information on the incident:

Police rushed Wednesday to Terminal 3, the main arrival and departure terminal for the Nordic region’s hub, after “a suspicious bag” had been spotted.

However, it was “an overheard conversation about a bomb” that sparked the evacuation, police said on Twitter. Bomb experts, fire trucks, police and ambulances were seen parked outside.

French President Francois Hollande noted in Wednesday’s address that his country would welcome 30,000 refugees in the next two years.

“Our country has to respect this commitment,” he said, adding there would be a 50 million-euro investment fund used to support housing for refugees.

The announcement came as authorities continue to investigate whether one of the suicide bombers during Friday’s deadly attacks in Paris followed a refugee route into Europe.

[Were Syrian refugees involved in the Paris attacks? What we know and don’t know]

What we know: 

• Officials identified the alleged ringleader of the Paris attacks: Abdelhamid Abaaoud, “a 28-year-old Belgian of Moroccan descent who cajoled his own 13-year old brother into fighting in Syria,” may have been hiding in a neighborhood in Paris.
• On Wednesday, in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, police and army troops raided an apartment in search of terror suspects, including Abaaoud.
• Two terror suspects died, including a female suspect who blew herself up. Officials would not say if Abaaoud was killed.
• Police detained multiple people after the pre-dawn raid.
• The operation came hours after two Paris-bound Air France flights were diverted, following threats.

French special police forces and forensic experts near the scene of Wednesday’s raid. (Christian Hartmann/Reuters)

PARIS — Jesse Redoute, head of a middle school in Saint-Denis, was awakened by the sound of gunfire at 4.30 a.m. “I looked out my window and saw police officers on their knees, telling people to go back home,” she said. “I heard a loud sound and that’s when we understood that this was a terror attack related to Friday night.”

Her husband, Ben, a landscape artist, ignored police pleas to stay inside and went out onto the streets, where he noticed the police had made a makeshift barrier with trash cans.

“When I was a kid, I used to watch American gangster movies; now this place is the same,” he said.

Still, he wasn’t surprised that a terrorist ringleader might attempt to hide out in the area.

“There are more than 100 different nationalities here, it’s easy to hide,” he said. “I’m not surprised they would choose such a site to hide.”

His wife said the officers were using lasers during the siege — “different light beams of all different colors, we could see them on the rooftop in front of our place. We saw flashes of light every time we heard the explosions.”

But the explosion at 7:30 a.m. — when a woman blew herself up — “was a different sound, louder,” she said.

Sladana Vuckovic, who lives on the top floor of a five-story building with windows facing out into Rue de Corbillon, was was also awakened by the pre-dawn gunfire and explosions. “I didn’t understand if it was happening below me or if we were being bombarded from above,” she said. She looked outside just long enough to see police and returned inside.

She knew immediately, she said, that the operation was related to Friday’s attacks. “It couldn’t have been anything else; that’s whats going on right now.”

Virgile Demoustier contributed to this story.

Police and bomb disposal experts at Kastrup airport in Copenhagen on Wednesday. (Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images)

From the Associated Press:

Authorities say the main terminal at Copenhagen’s international airport, the Nordic region’s main hub, has been evacuated because of “a suspicious bag.”

Police had no more details about Wednesday’s evacuation of Terminal 3, the main arrival and departure terminal. Television footage shows bomb experts, fire trucks and police outside the airport building.

The commuter train and subway lines to and from the airport were also halted.

As of late October, more than 22.6 million people have so far this year traveled through the Copenhagen airport.

French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve visits ‘Rue de la Republique’ on Wednesday in Saint Denis, France. (Pierre Suu/Getty Images)

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, speaking to reporters in Saint Denis, commended security forces for their work during Wednesday’s lengthy operation and praised residents for their “level-headedness.”

PARIS — French President Francois Hollande said the recent violence was an attack not just on residents of Paris and Saint Denis, but on all of France.

“These barbarians, in their blind violence, attacked the French people in all its diversity,” he said during a somber address to a meeting of French mayors. He promised that France would play a “major” diplomatic and military role in settling the conflict in Syria and dealing with the militant threat facing Europe. “This war has been raging for years already and it will take time to see it end,” he said. “So we need patience and firmness…”

“We are at war against terrorism, terrorism which declared war on us,” Holland said. “It is the [Islamic State] jihadist organization. It has an army. It has financial resources. It has oil. It has a territory. It has allies in Europe, including in our country, with young radicalized Islamist people. It committed atrocities there and wants to kill here. It has killed here.”

Speaking to journalists Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that canceling Tuesday’s soccer match between Germany and the Netherlands was the right call, according to Reuters.

Reuters reported:

“I was just as sad as the millions of fans that the match was cancelled. But the security officials took a responsible decision,” Merkel said in a brief statement to reporters on Wednesday.

“These are difficult decisions, perhaps the most difficult given the conflicting priorities of freedom and security. But yesterday it was right to decide based on security.”

You can read more about the canceled match here and here.

A banner reading “Freedom is a monument which can not be destroyed” on the facade of the Bataclan concert hall. (Peter Dejong/AP)

PARIS — The Wednesday siege unfolded as police scored a breakthrough, discovering a cell phone in a garbage can near the Bataclan concert hall, the site of one of Friday’s attacks.

The cell phone contained a map of the music venue, French media reported, along with a text message saying: “Let’s go, we’re starting.”

It was sent at 9:42 p.m. on Friday, according to RTL radio. According to witnesses, the attackers had entered the arena of the Bataclan at 9:40.

According to the French outlet Mediapart, investigators have not yet determined who owned the phone or who received the text message.

PARIS — Tena Rabia, a shop owner in Saint-Denis, said she ran out onto the streets when she heard gunfire at about 4.30 a.m.

“There was blood all over the place, people were injured,” she said. “It seemed like real war.”

Rabia described the area that was raided as “a headquarters of drug addicts. It’s a building where squatters go, anybody can go.”

PARIS — Officials would not yet say if the Islamic State operative who is considered to be the ringleader of Friday’s attacks was among the two dead and seven arrested after Wednesday’s bloody seven-hour siege.

But if Abdelhamid Abaaoud — the 28-year-old puppet master of the Islamic State’s effort to terrorize Europe — is found to have been hiding out among the churches and shops in the multicultural and historic neighborhood of Saint-Denis, it would mean the stealthy Belgian of Moroccan descent had somehow managed to slip past security nets and into the heart of France capital from the battlefields of the Middle East.

“For the moment, it is impossible to tell you the people who were are arrested, we still need to determine who is who,” Paris Prosecutor François Molins said Wednesday.

Read more about Abaaoud here: ‘He is a barbaric man’ — the Belgian who may be behind the Paris attacks

PARIS — Officials said that a 7-year-old police dog named Diesel was “killed by the terrorists” in Wednesday’s counter-terrorism operation.

The dog was shot at 5:30 a.m. with a “bullet meant for a wild boar,” according to a French police official.

Among them: An Algerian violinist drawn to the Sorbonne, new couples learning about each other and several architects envisioning new urban ideals.

Here are their stories.

The government’s proposal to extend a state of emergency for three months will be debated by France’s National Assembly on Thursday and by the Senate on Friday, government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said in a news conference.

From a White House official: “The President has been briefed on the law enforcement action on the outskirts of Paris. This is a French law enforcement operation, but the President asked to be updated as appropriate.”

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), who is on an 11-day trade mission to India and the Middle East, made no policy announcements related to Syrian refugees following the attacks in France.

His spokesman, Brian Coy, said Virginia has not received any refugees from Syria since the beginning of fiscal 2016 on Oct. 1. The commonwealth accepted 25 refugees during the previous 12-month period, Coy said.

“The governor will monitor the situation closely,” Coy said. “There’s nothing more important to him than keeping Virginians safe.”

 — Jenna Portnoy

The backlash against letting Syrian refugees into the United States escalated in Congress on Monday, with several Republican lawmakers seeking to enforce a moratorium on entrance to the United States by whatever means necessary.

“I call on you to temporarily suspend the admission of all additional Syrian refugees into the United States pending a full review of the Syrian refugee resettlement program,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Tex.) wrote in a letter to President Obama on Monday, in what is only the latest condemnation of the program.

Republican lawmakers have said and written that they are worried about a potential threat getting into the country under the guise of fleeing the Syrian civil war, while Obama has argued that refugees should be allowed in after thorough vetting.

Head to PowerPost for the latest on the ongoing debate.

Nohemi Gonzalez, a 23-year-old student at California State University at Long Beach. (Courtesy of California State University at Long Beach)

It has been nearly three days since at least 129 people were killed in Paris. Over that time, the names of many victims have begun to emerge, the pictures of their lives taking shape, as friends and relatives began to mourn those lost in the attacks.

They included a 23-year-old student from California, a man selling merchandise for the band playing at the concert hall that was attacked, a doctoral student, a technician with a new channel and many, many more.

Here is what we know about the victims so far. (This page will be updated as we learn more.)

More than a dozen governors have said in the wake of the Paris attacks that they do not want their states to accept Syrian refugees.

But officials at several American refugee resettlement agencies — nonprofits that resettle refugees after they have been given legal status in the U.S. — said Monday that state and local officials cannot physically prevent refugees from being resettled in their areas. They said that all refugees who arrive in the United States must first be approved for legal entry by the federal government after a lengthy screening process and that their housing arrangements are made through long-term contracts and relationships with city, county and state governments.

“Governors and state officials do not have the capability to prevent a refugee who is here and admitted lawfully to the U.S. from residing in their state. It is not something they can do,” said Lucy Carrigan, a spokeswoman for the International Rescue Committee. “There is a close collaboration with governors and mayors and community leaders about the capacity of the area for refugees and where they can go, but once they have legal status, you cannot impede their transit between different states.”

A total of about 1,900 Syrian refugees have been resettled in the United States in the past two years, all of them brought directly from camps and settlements in countries surrounding Syria. Carrigan and others said none of them had been part of the wave of migrants coming through Europe. The 1,900 are a tiny fraction of the 4 million refugees who are waiting in camps and settlements outside Syria. The International Rescue Committee, a nonprofit based in New York, has resettled about 250 of these Syrian refugees.

Asked about declarations being made by some state governors since the Paris attacks that they would not allow Syrian refugees in their states, Carrigan said this was the result of “misinformation and lack of information about the process. Every refuges goes through extremely rigorous security screening to get here, and it takes a long time.”

One former resettlement agency official, who asked not to be named, said there have been instances when some state governors declared they would not accept any more refugees, including some from Iraq, and that in those cases the agencies found them housing in a more welcoming region. “It has happened before,” the former official said.

Carrigan said her agency hopes that Americans will “look at what happened in Paris and recognize that this kind of terrorism is exactly what the Syrian refugees are fleeing. They are the most vulnerable of the most vulnerable.”

Matthew Soerens, president of World Relief, noted that refugees sent to the U.S. for resettlement are “completely different” from those “showing up in huge numbers at the borders of Europe.”

They have been vetted by U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies and have to wait at least 18 months – sometimes years — before being admitted.

“It would be very short-sighted for a terrorist who wanted to do harm to the U.S. to try and come through a refugee resettlement program,” Soerens said. “They wouldn’t make it in.”

Soerens, who is based in Chicago, said he disagreed strongly with the position of Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, who announced Monday that the state would suspend accepting new refugees from Syria. Soerens said that Chicago has one of the largest Syrian-American communities in the U.S., making it a logical place to resettle new refugees.

If they were sent to next-door Wisconsin instead, he said,” they would just move to Chicago to be with their relatives and friends,” he said. “It would be ludicrous to put up a border between Wisconsin and Illinois, and it would be a tragedy to stop the welcoming process from churches and communities here.”

This post has been updated.

Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, sharply criticized the calls Monday for the United States to stop accepting Syrian refugees.

These calls have come from a number of Republican presidential candidates, governors from across the country and Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

“With reports of a Syrian refugee’s passport at the scene of the stadium attack, some are already calling for an end to America’s acceptance of any refugees fleeing the horrors of ISIS and the Assad regime,” Schiff said in a statement Monday afternoon, referring to the Islamic State militant group by an alternative acronym. “But to turn our backs on those escaping persecution, many of them religious minorities, runs counter to the proud and generous heritage of a United States that has always helped those in need during turbulent times.”

Schiff acknowledged some risk in allowing refugees in, regardless of how many precautions are taken. He said the country should “examine and intensify” its security checks and ensure the refugees are properly vetted before being allowed in.

Secretary of State John F. Kerry arrived in Paris to express condolances and reaffarim solidarity to France on Monday. He is the first senior foreign official to visit Paris after the a series of attacks that left at least 129 dead.

More about his visit:

U.S. officials said Kerry would meet with senior French officials as well as U.S. Embassy staff and their families. They said the overnight stop was closely coordinated with French security to ensure it would not interfere with the ongoing investigation into the attacks.

Kerry will also meet with French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday morning, Hollande’s office said.

Read the full story. 

In the wake of the terror attacks in Paris on Friday, American and French aircraft ratcheted up their air campaign against the Islamic State in Syria.

Seemingly in tandem with the renewed airstrikes, images — while not verified — have gone viral on social media of American bombs and missiles emblazoned with a phrase of solidarity: “From Paris with Love.”

Read the rest of the story by Thomas Gibbons-Neff

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, wrote a letter to President Obama on Monday calling for the United States to temporarily stop letting Syrian refugees into the country in the wake of the Paris attacks.

“Our nation has a proud tradition of welcoming refugees into our country, but in this particular case the high-threat environment demands that we move forward with greater caution in order to protect the American people and to prevent terrorists from reaching our shores,” he wrote.

McCaul’s letter comes as a growing number of U.S. governors have said that they do not want Syrian refugees in their states.

French prosecutors said Monday that one of the Paris attackers appeared to have traveled along a route used by migrants arriving in Europe this year, raising fresh fears about militants using these paths to get into Europe. The Islamic State extremist group, also known as ISIS and ISIL, asserted responsibility for the attacks in Paris on Friday and a bombing in Lebanon a day earlier.

Obama has directed his administration to accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next fiscal year. On Monday, he said the United States would continue to accept refugees “after subjecting them to rigorous screening and security checks,” and he dismissed calls from GOP presidential candidates that only Christian refugees should be admitted.

In his letter, McCaul pointed to “longstanding indications that ISIS and other Islamic terrorists are seeking to exploit” the flow of refugees and said questions remain about how Syrian refugees can be vetted. McCaul said the administration should stop admitting Syrian refugees “pending a full review of the Syrian refugees resettlement program.”

It appears that French President François Hollande and some of the Republican presidential hopefuls have a genuine disagreement over the nature of the threat.

Read more at WorldViews.

The number of governors saying they do not want to accept Syrian refugees continued to grow throughout the day Monday, with the leaders of 13 states joining the list by midafternoon.

The governors of North Carolina, New Hampshire, Illinois, Ohio, Florida, Arizona, Indiana, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Michigan, Alabama, Texas and Arkansas all said they wanted to stop the relocation of Syrian refugees in their states, a clarion call that only grew in the hours after President Obama said that “slamming the door in [refugees’] faces would be a betrayal of our values.”

However, it remains unclear whether these governors — 12 Republicans and one Democrat — can actually stop the refugees from being brought to their states, as resettlements involve the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

At least one governor acknowledged this, with Florida’s Rick Scott writing to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) that he wanted Congress to help because his state could not stop the federal government from funding the relocation of up to 425 refugees to Florida.

“It is our understanding that the state does not have the authority to prevent the federal government from funding the relocation of these Syrian refugees to Florida even without state support,” Scott wrote. He urged Congress to take “immediate and aggressive action” to prevent the Obama administration from funding Syrian refugee relocation.

Read more on Post Politics.

Metro Transit Police said Monday that security in the transit system had been increased in the aftermath of the Paris attacks and a threat made against Washington.

The changes include the expansion of random screening for explosives at station entrances and the deployment of additional officers throughout the system.

Although Metro says the larger police presence began Friday, it was announced Monday, not long after a video allegedly made by an Islamic State-linked group threatened a Paris-style attack on Washington. Police departments nationwide had also increased patrols after Friday’s attacks, although U.S. officials have said repeatedly that there are no immediately known threats to the country.

The transit agency says riders should expect to see additional police patrols system-wide for an unspecified period. Head to Dr. Gridlock for more.

The Eiffel Tower on Monday began its first of three nights lit up with the colors of the French flag. Earlier in the afternoon, it was reopened to the public.

In the wake of the Paris attacks, governors across the United States are saying that they will not allow Syrian refugees to resettle in their states.

So far, eight Republican governors have said so, citing concern that violent extremists may be hiding among the refugees. The governors of Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan and Texas had expressed this sentiment by Monday afternoon, saying it was necessary to keep the residents of their states safe.

President Obama said Monday that the United States will continue to accept Syrian refugees after “rigorous screening and security checks,” adding that “slamming the door in their faces would be a betrayal of our values.”

Head to Post Politics for more.

Here is a brief look at what it is like on the ground in Paris in the wake of the attacks, as people gather at memorials and public spaces to mourn together:

Over at WorldViews, I write about how the galvanized war effort against the Islamic State militant group — which has asserted responsibility for the Paris attacks — may play into the hands of the Syrian regime:

In 2012, France led the way in officially recognizing the rather feeble Syrian Opposition Coalition as the “real representative” of the Syrian people. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius even called for Assad’s “elimination.” And the French lent support to prominent Sunni Arab gulf states, which, to varying extents, were helping fund and equip rebel militant factions fighting in Syria.

But now, as the French military ramps up its efforts against the Islamic State, an Assad foe that is also known as ISIS and ISIL, it seems as if the Syrian government is sitting pretty. Russia’s recent intervention into the conflict on behalf of Assad, a long-standing ally, has buttressed the regime and complicates the efforts of other regional powers to aid its opponents.

“There is no justification for terrorist acts,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, standing next to Secretary of State John Kerry at a meeting in Vienna on Saturday. “And no justification for us not doing much more to defeat ISIS and al-Nusra and the like,” he added, referring to an al-Qaeda proxy fighting in Syria.

“It doesn’t matter if you are for Assad or against him,” said Lavrov, who is very much for Assad. “ISIS is your enemy.”

Read more here.

The Bataclan music hall in Paris, where 89 people were killed in Friday’s attacks, posted a note to its official Facebook page on Monday, thanking the public for support. The message in French appears below (with English translation):

Chers Amis, (Dear Friends,)

Aucun mot ne suffit à exprimer l’ampleur de notre chagrin. (No words can express the depth of our sadness.)

Nos pensées vont aux victimes, aux blessés et à leurs proches. (Our thoughts are with the victims, with those who have been hurt and with their families.)

Vous êtes nombreux à vouloir vous recueillir au Bataclan, malheureusement les autorités ont encore besoin de travailler sur place. Nous vous tiendrons informés dès qu’il sera possible de vous recueillir devant la salle. (So many of you have wanted to gather at Bataclan, but sadly the authorities are still carrying out their investigation. We will let you know as soon as it’s possible to gather in front of the concert hall.)

Nous vous remercions pour votre soutien qui nous touche profondément. (We thank you for your support, which touches us profoundly.)

Authorities in France and Belgium are carrying out an intense manhunt for suspects in Friday’s attacks in Paris. See the full graphic here.

The Defense Department has banned U.S. troops and employees from traveling in their free time within 50 kilometers (31 miles) of Paris. This ban, put in place late Sunday, requires anyone who wants to travel to that area on official business or for emergency reasons to obtain approval from a general officer or other senior official in their chain of command.

Head to Checkpoint for more.

In the aftermath of the Paris attacks, Donald Trump and other American conservatives repeated a familiar and predictable response to mass shootings in other countries: They (France, in this instance) have a gun problem. If Parisians could legally carry weapons, the logic goes, they could have fought the assailants.

That argument doesn’t have much support in France, which has about 1,800 firearms-related deaths every year, as opposed to the more than 33,000 in the United States. But there is certainly a kernel of truth to it. France does have a problem with guns. However, while an American might view that problem in terms of legal ownership, a French person might view it in a very European way: by thinking of it as a border-control issue.

Read the full story here.

President Obama said the United States would continue to accept Syrian refugees, saying Monday that keeping them out of the country “would be a betrayal of our values.”

Obama was sharply critical of suggestions made by GOP presidential candidates that only Christians fleeing the Syrian civil war should be accepted.

“That’s shameful,” he said during a news conference in Turkey. “That’s not American, that’s not who we are. We don’t have religious tests to our compassion.”

Obama also defended his approach toward the Islamic State, saying his administration’s strategy would work, though he acknowledged that the militant group would still be able to kill people and cause mayhem.

Head to Post Politics for more.

The Islamic State caught the world’s attention in June 2014 when it captured Mosul, one of Iraq’s most important cities.

Since then, the militant group has launched attacks well beyond Iraq and Syria. The siege in Paris is an example of the group’s efforts to expand its self-proclaimed “caliphate.”

Here are Islamic State attacks from July to December 2014:

In 2015, attacks rapidly move outside the Syria-Iraq region: 

View the full graphic here.

A message posted on the Eiffel Tower’s official Facebook account said it would reopen at 4:20 p.m. local time on Monday. For three nights, it will be lighted up in blue, white and red.

LA TOUR EIFFEL ROUVRE AU PUBLIC ET S’ILLUMINERA AUX COULEURS NATIONALES PENDANT TROIS NUITS

La tour Eiffel rouvre ses portes aujourd’hui à 16h20.

Par ailleurs, à la demande de la Maire de Paris, la Tour Eiffel sera éclairée aux couleurs du drapeau français (bleu blanc rouge) et la devise de la Ville « Fluctuat nec Mergitur » sera projetée sur le tablier du 1er étage (côté Trocadéro), ce soir de la tombée de la nuit à 1h00 du matin et ce pendant trois jours, jusqu’au mercredi 18 novembre inclus.

————————————————————————————————–

THE EIFFEL TOWER REOPENS TO THE PUBLIC AND WILL BE LIT IN BLUE WHITE AND RED FOR THREE NIGHTS

The Eiffel Tower reopens today at 16h20.

In addition, as requested by the Mayor of Paris, the Eiffel Tower will be lit in the colors of the French flag (bleu white and red) and the motto of the City “Fluctuat nec Mergitur” will be projected onto the deck of the 1st floor (Trocadéro side) tonight from night fall to 1:00 am and for three days (until Wednesday, November 18 included).

A video released by an Islamic State sub-group appears to show militants in Iraq praising the Paris attacks and warning that a similar assault could take place in Washington.

The message, which was distributed by Islamic State-related social network accounts on Monday, was claimed to be made by Wilayat Kirkuk, a group based in Salahuddin province in northern Iraq.

Its authenticity could not immediately be confirmed. Although the video closely resembles others released by the Islamic State, it lacked the theatrics and high-quality editing of the other videos.

Head to WorldViews for more.

• Raids spread across France and Belgium amid manhunt for suspects
• Experts say terrorists are learning from one another and going after soft targets
• A closer look at how the Paris attackers might have chosen those locations
• New Islamic State video threatens Paris-style attack on Washington
• The darkening of the Eiffel Tower shows a Paris transformed

France said Sunday its was already hitting back after Friday’s attacks in Paris that were claimed by the Islamic State. Its defense ministry said jets were bombarding Raqqa, the Islamic State-held city in Syria, dropping 20 bombs in a raid launched from bases in the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.

The bombing of facilities used by the militant group was done in coordination with U.S. forces, the defense ministry said.

Read the full story here.

PARIS — There was a logic to these places: the concert hall, the cafes, the stadium. In boasting of responsibility for Friday’s deadly rampage, the Islamic State called these “precisely chosen targets,” symbols of the Parisian “capital of prostitution and vice.”

But there was no logic at the corner of Rue Alibert and Rue Bichat where the shooting began Friday night. Le Carillon, a traditional French cafe run here for 41 years by a Kabyle family from Algeria, was attacked. So was Le Petit Cambodge, a trendy Cambodian spot where it was often hard to get a table. Between the two restaurants and their outdoor terraces that faced each other, 15 died.

On an opposite corner, the Maria Louisa — a pizzeria with its own equally defenseless sidewalk seating — was not harmed.

The neighborhood around these restaurants may have been specifically chosen for its reputation of diversity and tolerance, people around here believe. But the particular businesses appear, rather, to have been victims of chance, easily targeted by fast-moving shooters traveling by car and singled out more for their open-air terraces than their owners’ identities.

Read the full story by Emily Badger and Mark Berman

On the night of the Paris attacks, Rurik Bradbury noticed an inevitable and tiresome trend popping up on Twitter. “I think I saw a professional news organization tweet about the lights of the Eiffel Tower being turned off in memory of the victims,” recalled Bradbury, the New York-based chief marketing officer of a software company. In the fog of war, and in the pursuit of virality, someone had mistaken the Eiffel Tower’s routine 1 a.m. darkness for a moving tribute.

Bradbury fired up the Twitter account of his alter ego, @ProfJeffJarvis. He used the well-known parody account, which makes fun of tech jargon and media “thinkfluencers,” to write a deadpan tweet about the icon of Paris going dark.

Read the full article.

JERUSALEM — Israeli leaders expressed condolences to the French over the Paris terror attacks but quickly stressed Sunday that Israel and the West face the same foe in radical Islam and that Israel is on the front line.

Israeli officials and commentators also suggested that French intelligence agencies had failed the republic and that France needs to pursue a tougher, far more intrusive — more Israeli — response against militants.

Read the full article here

In a statement on Sunday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said Iraqi intelligence had obtained information that the Islamic State militant group was planning an imminent terrorist attack overseas that may target “in particular” France, the United States and Iran.

“We notified these countries and warned them,” he said in a statement.

— Loveday Morris

PARIS — In a sign of how tense and nervy the city is, panic broke out at the Place de la Republic, where hundreds gathered to remember the fallen with candles and the singing of “La Marseillaise.” Although there were reports on social media of loud bangs, several people interviewed in the square said they didn’t hear anything resembling shots or firecrackers.

“Suddenly people were running and screaming everywhere, going in every direction. I said, ‘Stop running like a crazy person, calm down.’ But they didn’t. They kept running,” said Omar Zahiri, a 50-year-old lawyer. He said he saw two women dive into the Al Jazeera broadcasting van. He showed Washington Post reporters video of people sprinting down narrow streets and diving over fences.

“Nobody was left. And then five armed police came, then 15, circling the statue,” Zahiri said.

It wasn’t long before people returned to the square, including Jerome Calvini, a 26-year-old student holding a cardboard sign that said “Free Hugs.”

“I’ve given thousands of hugs over the last two days. It’s good for humanity to give and receive love.”

The Post’s graphics team has put together this interactive map showing a year of Islamic State attacks since the militant group’s capture of the Iraqi city of Mosul in summer 2014.

Click here to see the interactive version of the map.

A stampede erupted Sunday night near the Place de la Republique in Paris when hundreds of people gathered there started to panic and run from the square.

The momentary chaos interrupted live footage from a memorial at the city’s Notre Dame Cathedral when local TV news stations cut in.

French police told the Associated Press that people panicked when they heard firecrackers. Some said they thought the sounds were gunshots.

The Paris prosecutor’s office released information on two more suspects in the deadly attacks on Friday night.

Both suspects were French citizens living in Belgium. One, born Jan. 22, 1995, blew himself up by the Stade de France, where France was playing an exhibition soccer game against Germany.

The second suspect was born July 30, 1984. He blew himself up by the cafe Comptoir Voltaire.

A news release from the prosecutor’s office did not include the names of the two suspects, but it said authorities are working to identify other dead attackers.

A memorial service is being held at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris to remember the victims of Friday’s terror attacks.

Watch it live from BBC News.

French authorities released a photo of Salah Abdeslam, who may have been involved in the Friday night attacks in Paris:

Abdeslam, 26, was born in Brussels. Police asked anyone with information about his whereabouts to contact authorities and “please do not take action yourself,” as he is considered dangerous.

One site of the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai that left 166 people dead was the city’s main railway station, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. On Sunday, the railway station turned blue, white and red — the colors of the French national flag — to show solidarity with the victims of the Paris attacks:

Mumbai’s main railway station, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, is lit up in the colors of the French national flag on Nov. 15. (AFP/Getty Images)

Two days after terror took over Paris, crowds have come together in the city’s Place de la Republique, giving “free hugs” and chanting messages of hope.

BBC News’ Howard Johnson reported Sunday that a “free hugs circle” had broken out in the square, where people have been paying their respects to victims.

Someone on social media said people started singing: “Non non non on n’a pas peur, so-so-so solidarité,” which translates into “No, no, no — we’re not afraid, so-so-so-solidarity.”

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush speaks in Orlando on Friday . (Kevin Kolczynski/Reuters)

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said Sunday on CNN that the United States should focus its efforts to assist Middle Eastern refugees on Christians fleeing persecution.

He added that the Paris terrorist attacks should serve as “a warning for our country that this threat is not going to go away.”

From The Post’s Ed O’Keefe:

Bush conceded that screening refugees to determine whether they are Christian presents a “national security challenge” to the United States and European countries, but he added that “we do that a lot” already as the country screens potential refugees for relocation.

Bush’s views on refugees differ from other GOP presidential contenders who have called for an outright ban on accepting any Middle Eastern refugees. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee has been saying for weeks that the United States should not accept any more refugees from the region. On Friday, former neurosurgeon Ben Carson urged Congress to stop the Obama administration from allowing in more refugees from the regions.

Read more here.

German President Joachim Gauck speaks Sunday at the Bundestag, the parliament, in Berlin. (Gregor Fischer/EPA)

German President Joachim Gauck on Sunday condemned terrorism at an event to honor those who have lost their lives to violence.

During Germany’s Memorial Day, intended to honor victims of World War I and II, Gauck said terrorists have started “a new type of war” against those who disagree with their “barbaric ideology.”

“They are terrorists who in the name of Islamist fundamentalism are fighting against democracy, against universal values and also against Muslims who refuse to follow their barbaric ideology,” he said, according to Agence France-Presse.

The Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility for a massacre Friday in Paris.

Gauck, a former Lutheran pastor, explained, however, that “those who perpetrate or condone these acts must know that the community of democracy is stronger than international hatred.”

“We bow our heads before the dead,” he said, “but never will we bow down before terror.”

French President François Hollande’s announcement that his country would close its borders comes after years of not having systematic border checkpoints. The Post’s Rick Noack in Paris writes that what has happened since the announcement “demonstrated how fragile the continental European security concept really is.”

From his dispatch:

In reality, France is unable to control its own borders. Hundreds of roads lead into the country from the main neighboring countries Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Spain.

Travelers trying to enter France from Britain through the Eurotunnel early Saturday morning did not encounter passport controls — just hours after Hollande’s announcement. The confusion grew when airlines and railway companies said that their service between France and neighboring countries would continue.

Read more here.

The executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Nihad Awad, spoke out against the Paris massacre, saying the Islamic State militant group has been “launching a war on many Muslims” as well as those who oppose its politics.

“We are revolted by this heinous and despicable attack on civilian populations,” he said, adding that the response to the Islamic State’s actions should be “swift,” “methodical” and “principled.”

The Islamic State has asserted responsibility for the Paris attacks, which killed at least 129 people.

In his speech, Awad said the Islamic State does not represent the Muslim population.

“The majority of the victims of [Islamic State] attacks are Muslim, and Muslims worldwide — in the U.S., in Europe, in the Middle East — have condemned and have continued to condemn the brutal nature of this terrorist organization.”

French police on Sunday urged the public to not spread crime scene photos “out of respect for the victims and their families.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan ordered that the flags flying at the U.S. Capitol be lowered to half-staff “in honor of the victims of the Paris attacks,” he announced Sunday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan requested a moment of silence on Sunday at the Group of 20 Summit to honor the victims of the terrorist attacks in Paris.

President Obama met with Erdogan when he arrived at the summit, and the two presented a united front against an attack last month in Ankara, the Turkish capital, and the recent massacre in Paris.

“The skies have been darkened by the horrific attacks that took place in Paris,” Obama said. Referring to the twin bombing in Ankara last month, which killed more than 100 people, he added that “the killing of innocent people based on a twisted ideology is not just an attack on France, not just an attack on Turkey, but an attack on the civilized world. . . . We stand in solidarity with them in hunting down the perpetrators of this crime and bringing them to justice.”

Pope Francis said in his Sunday address in St. Peter’s Square that “the road of violence and hate does not resolve the problems of humanity.”

Some survivors of the terrorist attacks said the gunmen shouted “Allah hu Akbar” (“God is great”) in Arabic.

“Using God’s name to justify this path is blasphemy,” Francis said, calling the “intolerable” acts of violence an “affront to the dignity of the human person.”

Read more here on The Washington Post’s Acts of Faith blog.

President Obama talked about terrorism at the Group of 20 summit in Antalya, Turkey, on Sunday, discussing last month’s twin bombing in Ankara and the massacre in Paris on Friday.

“The killing of innocent people based on a twisted ideology is an attack not just on France, not just on Turkey, but it’s an attack on the civilized world.

“We stand in solidarity with them in hunting down the perpetrators of this crime and bringing them to justice.”

For more on Obama’s words, read this report by The Post’s David Nakamura.

“Paris is the City of Light,” Cecily Strong said during an atypically somber “Saturday Night Live” opening this weekend. “And here in New York City, we know that light will never go out. Our love and support is with everyone there tonight.”

Strong then repeated the message in French.

PARIS — Authorities were scouring Europe for at least one, and possibly two, suspects “directly involved” in the attacks and were trying to ascertain whether they were among people arrested over the past 48 hours in Belgium, according to two French officials familiar with the case.

French police took seven people in for questioning on Sunday in connection with the deadly attacks, expanding an international dragnet and investigation that now stretches from the Aegean Sea to the teeming Paris suburbs. But they continued searching for at least one other participant in the attacks. Although seven died, French officials and the Islamic State initially claimed there were eight attackers.

On Sunday, the Associated Press cited a French police official as saying that three Kalashnikovs were found inside a SEAT car that was used in Friday’s attacks.

Authorities say gunmen opened fire at a number of locations on Friday evening in central Paris, including the Bataclan concert hall and several restaurants: the cafe-bar Le Carillon and nearby Le Petit Cambodge. Soon afterward, assailants opened fire at the pizzeria Casa Nostra and La Belle Equipe, a new and popular bistro.

[What happened during the Paris attacks and how the world responded]

Thousands of French troops and police officers have been deployed around Paris after Friday’s attacks.

A police officer stands guard outside the Sacre Coeur basilica on Sunday. (Kamil Zihnioglu/AP)

Police officers patrol as tourists take pictures of the Eiffel Tower, which remained closed on the first of three days of national mourning in Paris on Sunday. (Daniel Ochoa de Olza/AP)

Officers patrol at the Sacre Coeur basilica in Paris on Sunday. (Kamil Zihnioglu/AP)

A Belgian official said seven people were taken into custody in Belgium in connection with the Paris attacks, according to the Associated Press.

The official, who spoke to the Associated Press, said two attackers who died during the massacre were French men living in Brussels.

Among the dead: Nick Alexander, who was selling merchandise for the California band Eagles of Death Metal at the Bataclan concert hall.

Alexander 36, from London, was a music-industry veteran who worked with numerous bands.

On Facebook, the American band MGMT called Alexander “one of the top crew members and merch sellers MGMT has had and one of the nicest guys in rock. He sold merch for us on our two European tours in the Fall of 2010, including those three nights at Le Bataclan. We are crushed to find out Nick is one of the victims of last night’s insanity who didn’t make it. If you have a t-shirt from that tour, wear it proudly to honor Nick.”

https://twitter.com/BestCoast/status/665631855442399232

Patrick Carney of the Black Keys wrote on Instagram that Alexander “had done quite a bit of touring with us as our European Merch man. He was one of the sweetest most pleasant guys to be around. Sending my love to everyone who knew him and especially his family.”

“Nick died doing the job he loved and we take great comfort in knowing how much he was cherished by his friends around the world,” his family said in a statement. “Thank you for your thoughts and respect for our family at this difficult time. Peace and light.”

Intelligence authorities said the attackers who terrorized Paris were all wearing the same “suicide vests” filled with the “mother of Satan” explosive — a concoction made from common household products.

The explosive vests, which were loaded with TATP (or acetone peroxyde or triacetone triperoxid), are more commonly seen on suicide bombers in the Middle East, authorities told Agence France-Presse.

TATP was used in the 2005 London Underground bombings, but the bombers wore the explosives in backpacks — not vests.

“Suicide vests require a munitions specialist,” an unnamed former French intelligence chief told the news agency. “To make a reliable and effective explosive is not something anyone can do.

“A munitions specialist is someone who is used to handling explosives, who knows how to make them, to arrange them in a way that the belt or vest is not so unwieldy that the person can’t move. And it must also not blow up by accident.”

The U.S. National Counterterrorism Center said TATP is a mixture that is “relatively easy to synthesize” but “can be very unstable and sensitive to heat, shock and friction,” according to the Boston Herald.

The mastermind behind the vests is still believed to be in Europe.

“They didn’t bring these vests from Syria: The more you shake these things, the more you multiply the risks,” the former intelligence chief told the AFP. “It’s very likely he is here, in France or Europe, one or several guys who have come back from jihadist areas and who learned over there.”

Among the victims in Paris was Gonzalez, an American exchange student.

From the Associated Press:

At the request of France, the European Union will hold a special meeting of its interior and justice ministers next Friday to assess the impact of the Paris attacks.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve asked Sunday for the meeting, saying “our battle against terrorism must be, more than ever, steadfast,” and must be reinforced at the European level.

The EU presidency, held by Luxembourg, immediately obliged.

The Post’s Susan Svrluga sends this dispatch from a candlelight vigil in downtown D.C.:

As the sun set Saturday evening, people hurried through Lafayette Square, many speaking French. The White House glowed behind them, but they turned toward the statue of French Gen. Lafayette, a Revolutionary War hero. A woman bent to light three candles at the base of the statue as a crowd swelled for a vigil.

Gérard Araud, the ambassador of France, stepped forward, grieving another terrorist attack in Paris.

Gérard Araud (left), French ambassador to the U.S. addressed the crowd in French. Standing next to him was Denis McDonough, White House chief of staff. (Victoria M. Walker/The Washington Post)

“I think it is not the time to make a speech,” he said, looking over hundreds of somber faces. Briefly, he thanked the United States for its support. “We are not just allies, but we are friends.” And we are all facing the same threat, he said.

He spoke in French, in essence saying France is at war, and we are united. France is not one religion or ethnicity but a place where all can choose to live together, he said.

After a moment of silence, people joined in La Marseillaise, the French national anthem.

And then people called out, “Vive la France!”

The vigil was held in a place that honors the historical alliance between the two nations. The statue of Lafayette in the park is inscribed, “By the Congress in commemoration of the services rendered by General Lafayette and his compatriots during the struggle for the independence of the United States of America.”

Inspired by the ideals of the American revolution as a 19-year-old French nobleman, Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, enlisted with the Continental Army in direct defiance of King Louis the XVI.

He was appointed a Major General and formed a close friendship with Gen. George Washington. After returning to France and celebrated as a hero, he helped launch the French Revolution. The park in front of the White House was named in his honor in 1824.

(Victoria M. Walker/The Washington Post)

“I’m French,” Mireille Robertson said, “That is why I came,” with her husband, who is American. Her son in Paris is safe; so are the two sons of her best friend, who were at the soccer stadium and told their mother they keep hearing the sound of the explosion, over and over. “I never go to demonstrations,” she said, “Never. I’m 53. This is my second,” she said, referring to the Charlie Hebdo attack. And she came Saturday.

Armand de Villeroché, a 15-year-old from Paris who lives in Bethesda now, said he feels sadness – and he wants to fight. He held a French flag tightly in his hands. “We’re not giving up,” he said.

Some in the crowd had no connection to France – other than the grief so many felt at the terrorist attack. Others had ties that suddenly felt binding.

Caroline Reppe, a 22-year-old from Texas, came because she studied in France for six months, and so the killings were an assault on a place she had called home. “This is just what I felt I needed to do,” she said.

Some hugged, crying. Some lit candles. A little girl held a paper French flag, colored in with red and blue crayons.

As darkness fell, the crowd continued to grow, hundreds gathered around the statute, clambering up its base, huddled closely together in the cold. They sang La Marseillaise again, more softly this time.

Yves Legoff, 69, musician, discusses why he and others are at a candlelight vigil at the Place de la République in Paris.

France far-right parties were quick to condemn the attacks as direct failures of President François Hollande’s Socialist government, and one prominent politician demanded that people living in France who are being tracked by authorities for possible terrorist ties be rounded up and held in internment camps.

“In the totality of these terrorist attacks, it’s been a matter of individuals who were already under surveillance,” Laurent Wauquiez, the secretary general of the Republican Party wrote in a declaration to Agence France-Presse, the French news service.

“We can no longer wait until they carry out an act,” Wauquiez wrote. “All of these people, who have files on them, must be placed in specifically dedicated anti-terrorist internment centers…There are no freedoms for the enemies of France and the Republic.”

“We all feel fright and revulsion,” he wrote. “All of France is profoundly in sympathy with the families of the victims. We cannot continue like this, and we cannot passively accept this world of terror for our children. We need to definitively say, ‘That’s enough.'”

Philippe de Villiers, a nationalist who leads the far right “Movement for France,” sent out a tweet soon after the attacks blaming what he has derided as the Islamization of the country.

“Immense drama in Paris, where we practice excessive tolerance and the mosqueization of France,” it said.

Two hours after the carnage, Louis Sarkozy, the 18-year-old son of the conservative who preceded Hollande, tweeted that “the weakness and incompetence of President Hollande are becoming a danger for France.”

After Twitter lit up with criticism, Sarkozy apologized in a tweet 15 minutes later, saying his tweet was “in terribly poor taste.” (His original comment no longer appears in his Twitter feed).

This story by The Washington Post’s Liz Sly, first published in April, is still relevant to anyone interested in better understanding the Islamic State, which has claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks that killed 129 people. Many key leaders in the organization once served in Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime:

Even with the influx of thousands of foreign fighters, almost all of the leaders of the Islamic State are former Iraqi officers, including the members of its shadowy military and security committees, and the majority of its emirs and princes, according to Iraqis, Syrians and analysts who study the group.

Read the entire story.

Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, Mike Huckabee and Jeb Bush comment on the Paris attacks that killed 129 people and wounded more than 350:

The identities of the 129 people killed in Friday’s attacks are just beginning to trickle out. The dead include citizens of Britain, Belgium, Sweden, Portugal and Spain, Romania and Algeria, according to news reports. Here are the victims whose names we know so far:

Nohemi Gonzalez, 23, American college student

Nohemi Gonzalez, a senior at Cal State University at Long Beach, was among those killed in Friday’s attacks, according to university officials.

Gonzalez was shot and killed while dining with two other Cal State Long Beach students at Le Petit Cambodge, a Cambodian restaurant, according to university officials. She was studying design and was attending the Strate College of Design for the semester.

Gonzalez was one of 17 Cal State Long Beach students who were in Paris on an international exchange program. The other 16 have been accounted for and are safe, university officials said.

Valentin Ribet, 26, French lawyer 

Valentin Ribet, a young French lawyer who specialized in white-collar crime, was killed at the Bataclan concert hall, according to his firm, Hogan Lovells.

Ribet, is among the first victims to be identified. He was “a talented lawyer, extremely well liked, and a wonderful personality in the office,” Hogan Lovells said in a statement. “This is an awful tragedy and hard for any of us to truly comprehend.”

Guillaume B. Decherf, 43, French

Freelance music journalist Guillaume B. Decherf, the father of two girls, was killed at the Bataclan concert hall, according to Les Inrocks, a magazine for which he wrote.

In the Oct. 28 edition of Les Inrocks, Decherf had reviewed “Zipper Down,” the latest album released by the Eagles of Death Metal, the band that was playing at the Bataclan on Friday. “We are all devastated that he’s left us,” the publication wrote on its website. “Our thoughts are with his family and friends.”

Nick Alexander, 36, British merchandise manager

Nick Alexander was killed while working at the Bataclan concert hall Friday night, according to a statement released by his family:

“Nick was not just our brother, son and uncle, he was everyone’s best friend — generous, funny and fiercely loyal. Nick died doing the job he loved and we take great comfort in knowing how much he was cherished by his friends around the world. Thank you for your thoughts and respect for our family at this difficult time. Peace and light.”

Alexander was managing merchandise for the band Eagles of Death Metal, which was playing at the Bataclan on Friday, according to Rolling Stone. He had worked with a number of bands over the years, including the Black Keys, Rolling Stone reported:

“I spent a lot of time with Nick, but the thing about the touring merch job, it’s one of the more thankless jobs,” drummer Patrick Carney tells Rolling Stone. “You do it because you just want to travel and you’re interested in meeting new people and it’s really hard work. It’s not the job you take if you’re into partying. So he was a really organized, super hard worker, really funny. I remember him always very content with being on tour. It was what seems to make him the happiest. After shows, when everyone would go wild or whatever, he would also be really reserved. He was just a sweetheart, that guy.”

Thomas Ayad, Mercury Records product manager

Thomas Ayad was an international product manager for Mercury Records, a division of the Universal Music Group. He was one of a team of Mercury staff at the Bataclan concert hall, according to Lucian Grainge, Universal’s chief executive. “This is an unspeakably appalling tragedy,” Grainge wrote in a note to staff. “I cannot even begin to express the depth of my sorrow.”

See the full graphic here.

Freelance music journalist Guillaume B. Decherf, the 43-year-old father of two girls, was killed at the Bataclan concert hall, according to Les Inrocks, a magazine for which he had written since 2008.

“We just learned of the death of our friend Guillaume B. Decherf at the Bataclan,” the publication wrote in French on its Web site. “He wrote about music, rock and metal — those were his specialties.”

In the Oct. 28 edition of Les Inrocks, Decherf had reviewed “Zipper Down,” the latest album released by the Eagles of Death Metal, the band that was playing at the Bataclan on Friday. He was scheduled to go to a concert by the English rock band Motorhead for Inrocks on Sunday.

“We are all devastated that he’s left us,” the publication said. “Our thoughts are with his family and friends.”

Via the Early Lead:

The NFL on Saturday released a statement saying it will beef up security at its stadiums for the games on Sunday and Monday in the wake of Friday’s terror attacks in Paris. The league added that, based on information from the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, there are no known threats against NFL stadiums.

“The safety of our fans, stadium personnel and teams at all NFL games is our priority, and security at our games is robust,” the statement read. “Our procedures have been certified and designated by the Department of Homeland Security since 2008 as effective anti-terrorism technology. All NFL clubs use mandatory metal detector screening and multiple layers of perimeter security external tot he stadium to safeguard fans and the stadium from explosive threats.”

Read the full story here.

Related: Army football took the field carrying the French flag

Nick Alexander was among those killed at the Bataclan concert hall. (Photo courtesy of family via U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office)

British citizen Nick Alexander was killed while working at the Bataclan concert hall Friday night, according to a statement released by his family:

“It is with huge sorrow that we can confirm that our beloved Nick lost his life at the Bataclan last night. Nick was not just our brother, son and uncle, he was everyone’s best friend — generous, funny and fiercely loyal. Nick died doing the job he loved and we take great comfort in knowing how much he was cherished by his friends around the world. Thank you for your thoughts and respect for our family at this difficult time. Peace and light.”

According to the Guardian, Alexander was working for the band Eagles of Death Metal, which was playing at the Bataclan on Friday.

Nohemi Gonzalez, a 23-year-old junior at Cal State University at Long Beach, was among those killed in Friday’s attacks, according to university officials.

Gonzalez was one of 17 Cal State Long Beach students who were in Paris on an international exchange program. The other 16 have been accounted for and are safe, university officials said.

University officials did not say how or where Gonzalez was killed on Friday. She was studying design and was attending the Strate College of Design for the semester, according to a statement from Cal State Long Beach.

The university is planning a vigil for Sunday afternoon.

“I’m deeply saddened by the news of the passing of Long Beach State University student Nohemi Gonzalez. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends during this sad time,” Jane Close Conoley, the university’s president, said in a statement. “Our university stands with our nearly eighty foreign exchange students from France as they struggle with this tragedy. We will extend all support necessary to comfort them. We will also extend support to all students, faculty and staff who are in need.”

Among those watching Germany vs. France at the Stade de France when explosions rang out near the stadium was a group of volunteers who were involved in the effort after the Germanwings crash earlier this year, according to Reuters.

Reuters reports:

“It was supposed to be an evening of French and German celebration and appreciation after that tragic event,” Airbus communications chief Rainer Ohler, who was in the stadium with the planemaker’s chief executive Tom Enders, said of the match.

“We heard the explosions and at first nobody thought of terrorism. It was only when President Hollande left and people started getting phone messages that we realized what was going on,” he told Reuters in Dubai by telephone.

You can read Reuters’ report here.

In June, Time Out Paris gave the restaurant on Rue de Charonne a glowing review. Here’s what the reviewer said, translated from the French version:

“The three pretty young women behind the story of La Belle Equipe met at a restaurant where they once worked, le Café des Anges, and decided to open this joyful bistro on the Rue de Charronne at the end of 2014. When we saw these fresh young faces behind the bar, we knew that this is a perfect spot for men on a first date.

Somewhere between a classic restaurant and a nightspot, La Belle Equipe has opted for a decor and that’s refined and casual at the same time, mixing brick walls and tapestries, antique mirrors and movie posters. Its large terrace lets you sip delicious aperitifs under the summer sky, with cocktails with an olive oil base or egg whites and rosemary. If you don’t want these, you can content yourself with a spritzer (6 euros) or a cocktail with gin, grapefruit and vanilla bean while you wait for the little tap on your shoulder from your server.

La Belle Equipe’s menu is bistro fare, with fresh, seasonal products: Burgers, composed salads and even octopus a la plancha (for more adventurous types). We also tasted a succulent prawn risotto for 15 euros and penne with gorgonzola with a chiffonade of ham, an entree that’s simple but tasty.

If this new night spot has nothing revolutionary to recommend it, there’s nowhere more fun and convivial – the kind of place where you can come sit down to take a load off, like you would when you’re visiting with a good old friend to catch up and chat away.”

American citizen Helen Jane Wilson was among those wounded at the Bataclan concert hall on Friday, according to the Associated Press and the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Wilson, who runs a catering company in Paris, told AP that she had been shot in the leg and was headed into surgery. Wilson was with a friend who “died in her arms,” according to the Times-Picayune, citing a friend of Wilson’s in New Orleans.

Wilson previously lived in New Orleans, where she worked at the House of Blues concert venue, according to the Times-Picayune.

U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry, left, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Vienna for a meeting about the conflict in Syria. (Leonhard Foeger/Reuters)

Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who is in Vienna for a meeting about the conflict in Syria, began a news conference Saturday with a statement emphasizing the close relationship between the United States and France. He spoke of the “visceral and unshakable” bond between the nations, and he promised to offer the French people “whatever support we can possibly provide as they root out the monsters that plotted these attacks.”

Kerry delivered the remarks in French. Here is an English translation:

Good afternoon. Last night the world witnessed the embodiment of evil when more than 120 people lost their lives, and more than 200 others were injured, in Paris at the hands of terrorists.

As President Obama has said, what transpired was “an attack not just on Paris – not just on the people of France – but an attack on all of humanity and the universal values we share.”

Daesh [the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State] has claimed responsibility. We are still gathering information, but we have seen nothing that leads us to a different conclusion.

France is America’s oldest ally. Our unshakable friendship dates back to the earliest days of my country’s existence, through two world wars, to the great partnerships that exist today between our leaders.

But devastating moments like these remind us that what connects the United States and France extends far deeper than the close alliance our governments have enjoyed for centuries.

Even in our darkest hours – especially in our darkest hours – the United States and France are united as one. And that is why we will offer France whatever support we can possibly provide as they root out the monsters that plotted these attacks – just as we know France would do for us.

The bond our nations share today is both visceral and unshakable. For me, it is also personal: I am one of many Americans with deep connections to France and immediate family living in or around Paris.

The U.S. Embassy is working around the clock to assist American citizens affected by this tragedy, and our government is working closely with French authorities to identify American victims. We are aware there are Americans among the injured and will continue to offer them the full range of consular assistance.

Earlier today I spoke with Foreign Minister Fabius, as well the U.S. Ambassador to France, Jane Hartley, and the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, and I emphasized our readiness to help however we can.

The United States stands with France – and nations around the world – in pure outrage and profound sadness.

We stand with France and the rest of the world in expressing our deepest condolences to the hundreds directly affected by these heinous acts.

And certainly, we stand with France and the rest of the world in our resolve to eliminate the scourge of terrorism from the face of the Earth. And make no mistake: that resolve has only grown stronger in the wake of this unspeakable brutality.

Valentin Ribet, a young French lawyer who specialized in white-collar crime, was among those killed at the Bataclan concert hall Friday night, according to his firm, Hogan Lovells.

Ribet, 26, is among the first victims to be identified. He was “a talented lawyer, extremely well liked, and a wonderful personality in the office,” Hogan Lovells said in a statement. “This is an awful tragedy and hard for any of us to truly comprehend.”

“We are shocked by both our loss and the wider events in the city,” the statement said. “Our thoughts at this time are with Valentin and his family as well as with his colleagues in the office and across the firm.”

Ribet had received several degrees from the Panthéon-Sorbonne University and had earned a masters degree in international business law from the London School of Economics in 2014, according to his LinkedIn profile.

“Our hearts are filled with sadness at this news,” the London School of Economics tweeted Saturday about Ribet’s death.

Ohio State University quarterback Cardale Jones is among those offering support to the victims of the Paris attacks this Saturday, the Early Lead reports.

The image on Jones’s cleat appears to mimic the illustration by graphic designer Jean Jullien, which was posted online Friday night.

Related: After Paris attacks, there’s only one ‘College Gameday’ sign worth sharing

According to the Associated Press, new developments unfolding now:

A Syrian passport found near the body of a Paris gunman indicates that its holder entered Europe through Greece, a Greek official said, according to the Associated Press.

Nikos Toskas, who heads police forces in Greece, said that the passport holder crossed into the European Union through the Greek Island of Leros on Oct. 3, AP reported.

“We do not know if the passport was checked by other countries through which the holder likely passed. We will continue the painstaking and persistent effort to ensure the security of our country and Europe under difficult circumstances, insisting on complete identification of those arriving,” Toskas said in a statement.

It’s unclear whether the gunman was the original passport holder, as Syrian passports are being sold on the black market for the benefits they confer.

Louis H. occasionally works at the Bataclan concert hall, he said Saturday. On Friday evening, however, the 26-year-old — who declined to give his last name because of security concerns — was there to catch the show with his mother.

He arrived around 8:30 p.m., and at about 9:40 p.m., he said he heard a noise that sounded like fireworks.

“Then a lot of people started screaming, I realized something was wrong,” he said. “The band stopped playing, and the lights went on. Some people were on the ground, some of them were running. I grabbed my mother, and I pinned her to the ground. I protected her head with my arms.

“We were lying down on the floor, trying not to move, pretending we were dead.”

Louis said that he could hear gunshots, screaming and weapons reloading. He didn’t look at the attackers, he said.

“After 10 minutes or so, someone said ‘the gunmen are gone.’ I didn’t think twice, it was time to escape,” he said. “I took my mother by the hand, and we rushed toward the backstage exit. On the way I saw several dead bodies and people injured. It was a massacre. We went out as fast as we could. That really saved us, because I realized later that the gunmen were still inside.”

When Louis and his mother reached the street, he said that they went straight to their car and drove home.

— Cléophée Demoustier

The attacks on Paris on Friday involved an act of violence rare in the Western world: suicide attacks. Data from the Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism shows how just how unusual suicide attacks — involving bombers or other means — in Western Europe and North America are; the most recent one resulted in a fatality during an attack on an IRS building in Austin in 2010. Most years have zero.

Deaths from suicide attacks are much more common in the Middle East, the Afghanistan-Pakistan region and Africa, which have seen more than 90 percent of the fatalities in most years.

The Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism maintains a global database of suicide attacks going back to the early 1980s. This particular type of violence really took off in the 2000s, starting with the World Trade Center attack on Sept. 11, 2001. Since 2000, by far the greatest number of suicide attacks have taken place in Iraq, followed by Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria. The chart below has 128 as the number of fatalities in Paris on Friday — a number subject to revision.

Read more here.

Muslims and their supporters took to social media last night and this morning to condemn the deadly terror attacks in Paris and reiterate the difference between Islam and extremist dogma.

As news about the shootings trickled out, an eyewitness said that one of the perpetrators had yelled “Allahu Akbar,” (“God is great” in Arabic), before firing into a crowd at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris. Just before noon Eastern time, French President François Hollande said the Islamic State was responsible for the deaths and called the attack an “act of war.”

Muslim groups widely condemned the terror attacks in Paris, and Muslims and supporters around the world took to social media to defend Islam as a nonviolent faith.

Read more here.

“It was chaos,” an audience member told French newspaper Le Figaro. “I was on the right side of the concert hall in the Bataclan, a song of the Eagles of Death Metal was about to wrap up, when I heard the sounds of explosions, like firecrackers. I saw the singer take off his guitar, I turned around and saw a man with an automatic weapon fire in the air.”

Authorities say at least 100 people were killed inside the Paris theater, where the American band was playing Friday night. Survivors say the gunmen opened fire on the audience, sweeping the seats with a hail of bullets.

“They were just standing at the back of the concert room and shooting at us. Like if we were birds,” Julien Pearce, a journalist who was attending the concert told CNN.

“It looked like a battlefield, there was blood everywhere, there were bodies everywhere,” another concertgoer told the Guardian.

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The Foo Fighters have canceled the remainder of their tour, saying that “in light of this senseless violence, the closing of borders, and international mourning,” the band cannot keep playing as planned.

The band on Saturday wrote in a Facebook post:

It is with profound sadness and heartfelt concern for everyone in Paris that we have been forced to announce the cancellation of the rest of our tour. In light of this senseless violence, the closing of borders, and international mourning, we can’t continue right now. There is no other way to say it. This is crazy and it sucks. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone who was hurt or who lost a loved one.

Tonight’s Democratic Party presidential debate will go on as scheduled, according to officials at CBS News. Questions for the candidates, however, will reflect events of the past 24 hours in Paris.

CBS News Executive Editor Steve Capus said the moderator’s plans had changed “dramatically” after news of the attacks broke.

“American leadership is put to the test,” Capus told the New York Times, explaining why it was important for the debate to continue. “The entire world is looking to the White House. These people are vying to take over this office.”

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Laurine Durand, a 29-year-old chef at a Paris restaurant, was at home when the attacks unfolded. She said that she received a call from her husband around 9:30 p.m. A 30-year-old Brazilian citizen working in Paris as an artist, he was having dinner with seven friends at Le Petit Cambodge.

“He told me that they’d been attacked a few minutes before. They were having dinner at the terrace when suddenly he heard a blast. The next thing he saw was people panicking and screaming.  He was next to the door entrance, so he rushed back inside. Then he saw his friend Gabriel on the sidewalk a meter away from him, covered in blood.  He grabbed Gabriel and pulled him back inside the restaurant. At that moment, he thought they were all going to die,” Durand said in an interview. “Then the shooting stopped.”

A rescue squad arrived a few minutes later, she said. Two of her husband’s friends were injured: One was shot twice, in the hand and the breast. The other was shot three times, in the leg and the back. Both were taken to the hospital. Her husband, who requested anonymity out of fear for his safety, and other survivors were transferred to a restaurant across the street from Le Petit Cambodge. They stayed there until 6 a.m., answering questions from the police.

— Cléophée Demoustier