Liveblog: Paris attacks

Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the man named as the chief planner of the Paris attacks, was recently interviewed in Islamic State propaganda magazine Dabiq. In it, he claims to have tried several times to enter Europe, finally managing to get into Belgium where he and others set up a base with weapons to plan attacks. The cell was apparently broken up by police, and Abaaoud says he fled to Syria.

Belgian police said today he was supected of involvement in the planning of the attack on a train in August, which was foiled by passengers after a man burst into a carriage with a Kalashnikov-style rifle.

Abaaoud, who is believed to be in Raqqa, uses the nom de guerre Abu Umar al-Baliki - 'the Belgian'.

Two small explosions were heard during a major police action in the Brussels area of Molenbeek, AFP reports. Dozens of masked and heavily armed police had sealed off the area and neighbours were told to stay inside their homes.

Police refused to provide any details about who may have set off the explosions or the purpose for them. 

Two hours into the siege a first explosion was heard and a similar followed it one hour later on a higher floor of a building with special security forces close by on roofs. 

Police arrested three suspects in the impoverished Brussels neighborhood on Saturday and continued house searches.

David Cameron's announcement of the hiring of 1,900 new spies will push the total in service in the UK to about 14,600, according to the Reuters news agency.

The British prime minister said the IS attack in Paris showed the West was locked in a "generational struggle that demands we provide more manpower to combat those who would destroy us and our values".

Reuters said the expansion would boost the domestic MI5 spy service, MI6 foreign intelligence agency and the GCHQ eavesdropping centre.

The British government also plans to double spending on aviation security, Reuters said, following the downing of a Russian airliner in Egypt last month.

Middle East Eye has a summary of what is known about the Paris attackers, and two people named by authorities as accomplices. You can read it here.

HLN.BE has published a picture of a man it says is Bilal Hadfi, a 20-year-old identifed by insiders and the Washington Post as one of the Stade de France bombers. 

Meanwhile, AFP has reported that Belgian police launched a major new operation on Monday in the Brussels district of Molenbeek, where several suspects in the Paris attacks had previously lived.

Dozens of armed police blocked a street in the area.

Police issued a warning over a loudspeaker to residents, AFP reporters said, while Belgian media reported that officers had surrounded a house and were telling the occupants to come out.

Belgian prosecutors had no immediate comment on the raid.

Paris attacker Brahim Abdeslam, a Belgium-based Frenchman who blew himself up outside a bar on Boulevard Voltaire, was from Molenbeek.

French police have launched an international manhunt for Abdeslam's Brussels-born brother Salah, who is also said to be linked to the Paris attacks.

Reports early on Monday of his arrest in the Molenbeek area were later dismissed by the police.

The Eiffel Tower has re-opened in Paris and for the next three nights it will be lit up in the French flag colours of red, white, and blue.

The brother of wanted Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam said on Monday that he did not know where he was, adding that his sibling was a "normal lad".

"As far as my brother is concerned, we don't know where he is right now," Mohammed Abdeslam told Belgium's RTL television at his family home inBrussels after he was released by police without charge after two days in detention.

French President Francois Hollande is addressing Congress (Congrès du Parlement) and stated that he will reconvene on Wednesday to discuss extending the state of emergency for the next three months.

Hollande stated that governments need to give more support to those who are fighting the Islamic State group, and that he will meet with US and Russian presidents Obama and Putin respectively to "unite our forces and reach a result".

Echoing comments from both the Turkish and US presidents on Monday, Hollande underlined that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad cannot be part of a political solution to Syria's conflict.

Hollande also said their in a need to modify the country's constitution in order to "fight terrorism" and suggested that 5,000 jobs could be created in police and gendarmerie, 2,500 in the ministry of justice and 1,000 in customs. 

A picture of two young men standing by Rue Albert, the site of one of the attacks that took place on Friday, has been shared on social media.

The men are holding up a phone with the image of the Twitter handle of the activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently.

On Sunday, France launched 20 air strikes over Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State group.

The French defence ministry said that sites used by IS such as a recruiment centre and an arms depot were targeted.

There has been no information regarding any human casualties.

Ahmed Shaheed, a fighter with al-Nusra Front - al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria - told Middle East Eye that the attacks in Paris were to be expected following France's bombing of Islamic State in Syria.

“What you saw in Paris is a retaliation," he wrote in a message to MEE. “So don’t cry about it. If a country chooses to bomb someone expect to get a retaliation. Simple.”

Shaheed, who is originally Australian, is believed to be based in Aleppo, though this has not been independently verified.

Despite Nusra's longstanding rivalry with Islamic State (IS), Shaheed said they would stand with them against "tyrants".

“Listen, IS fought a 10-year guerrilla war with a full American invasion and still remained a resistance, no matter how much you bomb or how much you try, whether IS are weak or strong, they will always be a threat if the West doesn’t stop its aggression," he wrote.

“Now you have two groups competing with each other at who can do most damage to the West. Haha."

Al-Qaeda have traditionally been seen as more willing to attack targets in the West than IS, who have primarily concerned themselves with building a power base in Iraq and Syria.

January's attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris was carried out by militants with links to the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

In response to a question about possible similar attacks by Nusra on the West, Shaheed said he was just a "simple soldier".

“I don’t know what Nusra has planned - I know one thing, though. If the West keeps supporting dictators against the Muslims and keeps bombing them then expect the same if not worse," he told MEE.

However, he said that it was a "good thing" that such attacks by IS were overshadowing Nusra's activities, as it prevented the media from publishing "biased narratives" about the group.
 

The Mayor of the Molenbeek district of Brussels announced that operations had ended to capture suspects in Friday's attacks in Paris.

No arrests were made.