Raffaello Pantucci: Militant network will be fleeing rather than fighting

Raffaello Pantucci, director of International Security Studies at the Royal United Services Institute, told Middle East Eye that the raids by the French and Belgian police were likely to be broad in scope and put any IS suspects on the backfoot.

"Clearly they’re dealing with a network that already knew about, so they’re just stamping down heavily on them, trying to pick up all the pieces," he said.

"I think that you’re more likely to now see people scarpering, probably back to Syria and Iraq, than you are trying to launch attacks."

"Unless there’s some pretty major slip-ups they’re going to try and sweep up as much of the network as they can now and then figure out exactly who they’ve caught."