by Paul Dakiki

Hollande says Paris attacks are "an act of war." Manhunt on for Abdeslam Salah, who drove one of the cars used by the bombers. Many of the attackers came from Belgium and Molenbeek, considered a center of radical Islam. Some call for a war against the Islamic State, but human and monetary costs are prohibitive. For others, the attacks outside of Syria and Iraq are a sign of IS desperation as it succumbs to wave of defeats on the ground.

Beirut (AsiaNews) - French warplanes have carried out a series of air raids on Raqqa, the city considered the "capital" of the Islamic state (IS) in Syria. According to military sources, they have destroyed a command post, a training camp and a warehouse of ammunition and weapons.

The overnight operation is the first response to the November 13 attacks in Paris, claimed by IS. French President Francois Hollande says IS are responsible for killing at least 129 people and injuring more than 300 and described their actions as "an act of war."

France is so far the only European country engaged in combat in Syria and Iraq.

Meanwhile, a France immersed in grief is carrying out a manhunt for Abdeslam Salah, 26, suspected of having participated or having driven one of two cars involved in the attacks. This would be the Volkswagen, parked near the Bataclan concert hall, where 89 people were killed. Salah was born in Brussels and had been stopped by the police the day after the attacks, but they let him go.

Salah Abdeslam is described as very dangerous and people are warned not to approach him but to call the police, should they sight him. Abdeslam is one of three brothers who police suspect of being implicated in terrorist actions. Abdeslam Brahim, 31, is believed to have one of the suicide bombers who blew himself up in front of the Boulevard Voltaire cafes, injuring one person. Another brother, Mohammed, was arrested in Molenbeek, near Brussels, on his return from Paris. The Belgian police have arrested seven others, all revolving around in Molenbeek, considered a hotbed of Islamic extremism.

Among the seven attackers, who killed themselves or were killed, there is Hadfi Bilal, 20 years old, also from Belgium, who blew himself up with a suicide belt at the Stade de France.  Another of the Bataclan attackers was also identified as Mostefai Ismail Omar, 29, a Frenchman of Algerian origin. He is known to have spent several months in Syria and returned radicalized in his Islam, even if so far he had not participated in any violent actions.

The authorities are also checking a Syrian passport at the Stade de France. It belongs to a man who arrived as a refugee from Greece. But it is highly likely to be a false passport. Another passport, Egyptian, found at the stadium, belonged not to one of the assailants, but a victim.

Meanwhile, the several Heads of State, gathered in Turkey over the weekend for the G20 – from which Hollande was absent because of the Paris emergency – discussed how to stop the growing terrorist actions outside Syria and Iraq. One day before the attacks in Paris there was the twin suicide bombing in Beirut and two weeks before the attack on the aircraft Russian over Sinai.

Some analysts call for a war against IS which would require at least 150 thousand ground troops, engaged perhaps for decades, with costs on trillions.

Other analysts think that the Paris attacks are a sign of IS desperation given its recent defeats in Sinjar (northern Iraq) and in the province of Aleppo, where the Syrian troops have cleared the Kweiris air base.

• SYRIA-FRANCE-ISLAM