Germany reveals it is considering using 'all available means' - including greater military involvement - to fight ISIS in the wake of Paris attacks 

  • Angela Merkel is under pressure domestically to join an anti-ISIS coalition
  • Christian Democrats in Berlin want Germany to consider bombing ISIS 
  • Germany has traditionally had a pacific foreign policy since the 1950s
  • However, the modern Luftwaffe has the capability to strike ISIS targets
  • See full coverage of military action against ISIS 

German political leaders have urged Chancellor Angela Merkel to join an international coalition including Russia to help eliminate ISIS. 

Chancellor Merkel has held talks in Turkey this week with world leaders as part of the G20 summit. 

At home, members of her conservative parliamentary group have urged Mrs Merkel to abandon Germany's overwhelmingly pacific foreign policy. 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, as members of her political party back home have called for direct military action against ISIS following the Paris atrocity

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, as members of her political party back home have called for direct military action against ISIS following the Paris atrocity

Talks at the G20 meeting in Turkey have been dominated by the threat of terrorism and the appropriate response required against ISIS who have claimed responsibility for the attack on Paris claiming 129 lives

Talks at the G20 meeting in Turkey have been dominated by the threat of terrorism and the appropriate response required against ISIS who have claimed responsibility for the attack on Paris claiming 129 lives

Christian Democrat politician Henning Otte said Germany should use 'all available means' as part of the fight against ISIS. 

His colleague, Jürgen Hardt told the Wall Street Journal: 'If there is a new a joint effort under the umbrella of the United Nations that includes both Russia and the Western world, Germany should make a substantial contribution to this international coalition, and not just in the diplomatic and economic spheres, but also in the military sphere.'

The German Luftwaffe has three squadrons of advanced Eurofighter Tyhpoon jets as well as two Tornado squadrons. 

Germany has already been providing arms and training to Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.

So far, almost 5,000 Kurds have been trained and 20,000 assault rifles, a similar number of hand grenades and millions of rounds of ammunition have been distributed to anti-ISIS rebels, along with 60 Milan anti-tank weapon systems.

Germany has two squadrons of Tornado bombers, file photograph' who have trained closely with NATO

Germany also has three squadrons of Eurofighter Typhoon jets which can also be used in a ground-attack role

Germany also has three squadrons of Eurofighter Typhoon jets which can also be used in a ground-attack role

Chancellor Merkel has been involved in high-level talks with political leaders from the other G20 states in Turkey. She said: 'We agreed that the challenge can't just be tackled with military mean, but only a multitude of measures.'

However, since the attacks on Paris and the announcement that a Russian passenger jet which crashed in Egypt last month was destroyed by a terrorist bomb, the prospect of a wide-ranging international coalition against ISIS has moved progressively closer. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed today to track down the terrorists responsible for the attack on the Metrojet Airbus A321 across the globe. 

Egyptian authorities announced they have arrested two people who worked at Sharm el-Sheikh airport who are accused of helping ISIS smuggle a 1.5kg home-made bomb on board the doomed flight which claimed the lives of 224 passengers and crew. 

PARIS MASSACRE: WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR ABOUT THE DEADLIEST TERROR ATTACK TO HIT EUROPE IN A DECADE 

At least 129 people are dead, and another 352 injured, after three teams of jihadis struck the Stade de France football stadium, a handful of bars and cafes, and then finally the Bataclan concert hall.

FIRST TWO ATTACKS: STADE DE FRANCE

  • The attacks began at 9.20pm at the Stade de France where the French football team was hosting Germany in an international friendly.
  • The game was being watched by 80,000 spectators, among them was President Francois Hollande who had to be evacuated from the stadium. 
  • Ahmed Almohammad, 25, from Syria approached the stadium with a match ticket. He was turned away from Gate D after being frisked by a security guard.
  • He backed away from the gate and detonated his vest, killing one other person. A passport was found near his body.
  • A second suicide bomber, Bilal Hadfi, 20, blew himself up near Gate H at 9.30pm. No one else was reported killed. Hadfi is said to have fought with ISIS in Syria.

THIRD ATTACK: LE PETIT CAMBODGE AND LE CARILLON BAR

  • At 9.25pm a separate team of gunmen arrived in a Black Seat and attacked diners at popular Cambodian restaurant Le Petit Cambodge and Le Carillon bar in the trendy Canal Saint-Martin area of eastern Paris, killing 15. The gunmen were using Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifles. 

Timeline of events: Eight terrorists carried out the devastating attacks on Friday night, leaving 129 people dead and another 352 injured

FOURTH ATTACK: LA CASA NOSTRA PIZZERIA AND LA BELLE EQUIPE BAR

  • The same unit then drove about 500 yards to La Casa Nostra pizzeria and opened fire on diners on the terrace of the restaurant, killing at least five people.
  • From there, the militants drove around a mile south-east – apparently past the area of the Bataclan concert venue – to launch another attack, this time on La Belle Equipe bar in Rue de Charonne. At least 19 people died after the terrace was sprayed with bullets at 9.36pm The attackers then drove off.

FIFTH ATTACK: CAFÉ 'COMPTOIR VOLTAIRE'

  • At 9.40pm, Ibrahim Abdeslam, also known as Brahim, 31, set off a suicide vest inside cafe 'Comptoir Voltaire' on the Boulevard Voltaire and close to the Bataclan theatre. He hired a black Seat car used in the attack, which was found later abandoned with three assault rifles, along with five full magazines. The killers had emptied 11 magazines, firing an estimated 330 rounds. 

SIXTH ATTACK: BATACLAN MUSIC HALL

  • At 9.40pm, the third group (believed to be three men and a woman) armed with AK-47s stormed the Bataclan music hall and began shooting members of the crowd. Survivors claim three blew themselves up and a fourth person was shot dead by police before they could detonate their bomb.

SEVENTH ATTACK: NEAR STADE DE FRANCE

  • At around 10.15pm a third blast took place near the Stade de France, this time by a McDonald's restaurant on the fringes of the stadium. The boom caused terror among spectators who had already been attempting to flee the stadium following the first two explosions. The attacker who detonated his suicide vest was identified as a 20-year-old French man living in Belgium.
Tearful members of the public view flowers and tributes on the pavement near the scene of the concert hall massacre on Friday

Tearful members of the public view flowers and tributes on the pavement near the scene of the concert hall massacre on Friday

AFTERMATH:

  • On Saturday morning, ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks across Paris, saying 'eight brothers wearing explosive belts and carrying assault rifles' conducted a 'blessed attack on... Crusader France'.
  • On Saturday morning, the world's most wanted man, Salah Abdeslam is stopped by French police along with two other men as he approached the Belgian border. He is released after he shows his ID and returns to the Jihadi hotspot of Molenbeek in Brussels where he vanishes.
  • Belgian police launch several anti-terror raids after Abdeslam was identified as having rented a VW Polo used by the Bataclan killers which was found abandoned nearby.  
  • One of the Stade de France suspects was found carrying a Syrian passport under the name Ahmed Almohammad who travelled to France as a migrant through Greece on October 3. Ferry tickets reveal he travelled with another man named as Mohammed Almuhamed.
  • However, the French minister of justice Christiane Taubira said on Sunday that the passport under the name Ahmed Almohammad was a fake.
  • Omar Ismaël Mostefai, 29, from Courcouronnes, Paris was also named as a Bataclan suicide bomber. The petty criminal and father-of-one was known to police as a radical and had travelled to Algeria and Syria. He was identified by the fingerprint on a severed digit found after he detonated his suicide belt. 
  • Mostefai is believed to have been radicalised by a Belgian hate preacher of Moroccan descent claimed to have regularly preached at his mosque in South West France. His father, a brother and other family members have been held and are being questioned. 
  • The black Seat Leon used by the terrorists who murdered diners outside the Casa Nostra pizza restaurant and the La Belle Équipe cafe was found abandoned 20 minutes away in Montreuil with three AK-47s and 16 magazines - 11 of them empty.
  • Seven people were detained in Belgium linked to the atrocities. Five are from the Molenbeek area of Brussels known as a 'den of terrorists'.
  • Five of those arrested, including Salah and Ibrahim Abdeslams' brother Mohamed have been released without charge. Two others have been charged with unspecified terrorist offences.  
  • Iraqi spies warned the West of an ISIS suicide bomber threat the day before the Paris atrocities, it was revealed on Sunday, as more details of major intelligence failures began to emerge. The US-led coalition in Syria was apparently told by Iraqi security sources that 24 extremists were involved in the terror operation planned in the ISIS capital Raqqa and it would involve 19 attackers including five others including bombmakers and planners. No detail was given of when or where an attack might take place.
  • It has also emerged that Turkey's authorities foiled a plot to stage a 'Jihadi John revenge attack' in Istanbul - involving a high-profile British jihadist - on the same day as the deadly massacre in Paris.
  • From as far back as August, France's authorities possessed information that militants were said to be planning attacks on French concert halls after a tip-off was received from a 30-year-old man who was detained on his way back from Syria.
  • On Sunday night there were 42 people still said to be in intensive care in hospital following Friday's terrorist attacks. 
Thousands lined the streets of Paris on Monday for a minute's silence to remember those killed in a wave of attacks on the city on Friday

Thousands lined the streets of Paris on Monday for a minute's silence to remember those killed in a wave of attacks on the city on Friday

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:  

  • French and Belgian police are still hunting for three gunmen on the run, including Abdeslam, and an ISIS bombmaker likely to have made the suicide vests.
  • An international arrest warrant has been issued for Abdeslam, 26, who is accused of renting a Volkswagen Polo used by the suicide bombers.
  • It emerged on Sunday night that police found Abdeslam near the Belgian border early Saturday but let him go after he showed them his ID card. Officers pulled over the car being driven by Abdeslam on Saturday morning on the A2 motorway between Paris and Brussels. Two other men were also in the car. 
  • At the time, officers in Paris knew that Abdeslam had rented the car used by the killers which had been abandoned near the theatre but the information had not been transmitted to those responsible for conducting the border checks.
  • On Sunday evening the French defence ministry announced that the country's warplanes had bombed Islamic State's stronghold in Syria's Raqa, destroying a command post and a training camp. Ten fighter jets were involved, dropping 20 bombs.
  • French and Belgian police conducted 168 pre-dawn anti-terror raids on Monday, including a botched attempt to capture Abdeslam, who is still on the run. The raids took place at addresses in Brussels, Toulouse, Lyon, Grenoble, Calais and two suburbs of Paris. A rocket launcher, flak jackets, several pistols and a Kalashnikov assault rifle were among the cache of weapons seized in Lyon overnight.
  • French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said 104 people had been placed under house arrest, while 23 suspects were detained for questioning.
  • The mastermind behind the Paris terror attacks is named as one of ISIS' top executioners, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 27, who even recruited his 13-year-old brother to fight with him in Syria. 
  • ISIS issue a chilling new video warning that countries taking part in air strikes against Syria will suffer the same fate as Paris and claimed they will attack Washington D.C. next. 
  • French police have discovered a safe house used by the terror gang in the Bobigny suburb of Paris rented three days before the attack.
  • The Royal Air Force has stuck ISIS targets in northern Iraq as the French continue their air strikes against the Jihadi stronghold of Raqqa, Syria. 

 

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