LONDON: Declaring a state of emergency for the next three months, French President Francois Hollande today swore to ‘destroy’ ISIS and will further intensify the airstrikes on them in Syria by sending a ‘Charles de Gaulle’ aircraft carrier packed with jets this week.
The Daily Mail reports that the President, while addressing a special congress of the joint upper and lower houses of parliament at the Palace of Versailles, said that France was at war against cowards, and not in a clash of civilisations, after militant attacks killed at least 129 people in and around Paris last week.
Hollande also called for a resolution by the United Nations Security Council to fight the ISIS leading to a coalition ground invasion.
For the next three months 1,500 additional troops will guard official buildings and religious sites and stricter controls at the country's borders will be enforces. Also, the army will stay on the streets.
'France is at war. No barbarians will prevent us from living how we have decided to live. To live fully. Terrorism will never destroy the republic, because the republic will destroy terrorism. We must do more. Syria has become the largest factory of terrorists the world has ever known,” President Hollande said.
France has already launched its first set of airstrikes on Raqqa, the ISIS stronghold in Syria by dropping 20 bombs and taking out their camps and recruiting centres, in a ‘merciless’ retribution for the 13/11 carnage in Paris.
The police have conducted around 150 co-ordinated raids and several suspects have been rounded up from Belgium and France.
A massive manhunt is underway to capture suspect fugitive Salah Abdeslam, who is wanted by the police following the deaths of 129 people in the Paris terror attacks on Friday.
His brother Ibrahim Abdeslam blew himself up outside the cafe Comptoir Voltaire, which was part of the series of attacks in the French capital.
Mohamed Abdeslam, who is the third brother, was freed without charge after being questioned by officers.