Kerry: Paris Islamic Terrorists ‘Psychopathic Monsters’

The Islamic State terrorists who perpetrated Friday’s Paris attacks are “psychopathic monsters”, US Secretary of State John Kerry has said.

Speaking on a visit to Paris on Monday, Mr Kerry described France as America’s ally, and pledged solidarity between the two nations.

French President François Hollande is due to fly to Washington and Moscow in the coming week for talks with US and Russian leaders in the aftermath of the attack in which over 130 people died.

The BBC reports that France has mobilised 115,000 security personnel, with Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve saying 128 raids were carried out on suspected militants, while more French airstrikes also hit Islamic State targets in Syria overnight.

“We have mobilised 115,000 police, gendarmes and military over the whole of our national territory to insure the protection of French people,” Mr Cazeneuve said.

He also vowed to increase police funding, which he said had fallen by 17 per cent between 2007 and 2012, while Nicolas Sarkozy was in office.

A huge manhunt is also under way for Salah Abdelslam, one of the main suspects who is thought to have fled across the border into Belgium.

The Belgian government has also raised its terror threat level while Abdelslam remains at large, with Tuesday’s soccer match between its national team and Spain cancelled as a result.

President Hollande told a joint session of the French parliament yesterday that he would table a bill to extend France’s state of emergency for three months. Parliament will vote on the bill tomorrow.

Yesterday, former president Nicolas Sarkozy called for all 11,500 people on France’s terror watch list to be electronically tagged, and said suspects with dual citizenship should be deported immediately.