'We won't give in to fear or hate'
President Francois Hollande yesterday vowed that France would respond to the "army of fanatics" which carried out the Paris attacks with more songs, concerts and shows, as the nation paused to pay homage to the victims.
"We will not give in either to fear or to hate," said Hollande on a cold and misty day in the courtyard of the historic Invalides, the 17th-century complex housing Napoleon's tomb.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. "To all of you, I solemnly promise that France will do everything to destroy the army of fanatics that committed these crimes," he said before a crowd of 2,600 dignitaries and some of those injured in the violence.
Some sat in wheelchairs, while firefighters and ambulance personnel in uniform stood silently in rows, two weeks to the day since gunmen opened fire on bars, restaurants and a concert hall and detonated suicide vests at the Stade de France national stadium.
Pictures of the victims were displayed on a giant screen, the photographs striking for the fact that most were of people under 35.
The attacks -- claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group -- were the worst ever terror attack on French soil, leaving 130 dead and 350 injured.
Hollande said "130 destinies had been stolen, 130 laughs that will never be heard again," adding that they had come from more than 50 places in France and 17 countries.
The attackers acted "in the name of an insane cause and a betrayed God," said Hollande.
He said France would respond to the attacks defiantly, with more "songs, concerts and shows. We will continue to go to stadiums."
However, a handful of the victims' families boycotted the ceremony, saying the government failed to take sufficient measures to protect the nation in the wake of the jihadist shootings at Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper and a Jewish supermarket in Paris in January.
Reflecting the solemnity of the ceremony, Liberation and Le Parisien newspapers listed all the victims on their front pages Friday in stark black and white print.
Having vowed to crush IS for their role in the attacks, Hollande has spent the week in a whirlwind diplomatic bid to build a broad military coalition, although his efforts have met with limited success.
He said Thursday that he and President Vladimir Putin had agreed to coordinate air strikes against IS. The future role of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, however, remains a deeply divisive issue.
But the idea of a single anti-IS coalition involving Western powers and Russia did not get off the ground as US President Barack Obama is said to have given a cool response to Hollande's proposal.
The Kremlin yesterday said that Western powers were not ready to form a coalition with Russia to fight the jihadists in Syria.
"At the moment, unfortunately, our partners are not ready to work within the format of single coalition," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
He added however that Russia remained open to cooperation "in any format our partners would be ready for."
Yesterday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he could envisage Syrian government troops taking part in the anti-IS fight, though he later clarified to AFP that this could only happen after a change of regime. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem welcomed the proposal.
As France mourns its dead, an international manhunt is still on for two key suspects in the attacks -- Salah Abdeslam, who played a key logistical role in the wave of terror, and Mohamed Abrini, seen with Abdeslam two days before the November 13 atrocities.
Meanwhile, newspaper Bild yesterday reported that Four assault rifles used in the deadly Paris attacks were allegedly purchased from a trafficker in Germany. Quoting documents from the Stuttgart prosecutor's office, the newspaper said two AK47s and two Zastava M70s were sold on November 7 by the arms dealer to a customer in Paris.
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