21/11/2015 Reporters

Now on BBC News, it's time for Reporters

Hello, and welcome to this special edition of Reporters.

I'm Christian Fraser, here in the Place de la Republique

Following the shocking events last week in the French capital,

we have a range of reports from our global network of correspondents

as the country responds to the worst attacks on French soil

Katya Adler reports on the night Paris came under siege.

We all lay down, the whole room lay down.

I was under other people and they kept shooting.

We heard the shots, people screaming, as though tortured.

Fears of a Muslim backlash, Gavin Hewitt investigates the impact

People struggle to explain why young men would come down here and just

The Belgian connection, Ian Pannell visits Molenbeek,

the Brussels district where several of the attackers lived,

If you were able to speak to Salah now, what would you say?

I would ask him to surrender, to give an explanation, I would

One jihadist in a million migrants, Gabriel Gatehouse traces

the route of the Paris bomber who entered Europe as a Syrian refugee.

Quentin Somerville asks why IS have brought their jihad from the

The Islamic State is under pressure and that may mean a shift

That increasingly, the group will focus its attacks

outside of its home territory, here, in the Middle East.

Jayne McCubbin joins English and French football fans as they

They are the worst attacks on French soil since the end of the

Last week's terror attacks ripped through the heart of Paris

when its guard was down, as people enjoyed a Friday night

President Hollande said the bombings were a declaration of war by

the so-called Islamic State and has placed the city under a state of

Katya Adler reports on the night that Paris came under attack.

Her report does contain some distressing images.

This is how a regular Friday night in Paris at a football match,

a rock concert and round the corner at the local restaurant...

It all started just after nine in the evening.

Chanting crowds here at the France versus Germany friendly had no clue

Then a second, and a third, blowing themselves up,

The French President was watching the game

Dazed, frightened fans lingered at first, too scared to leave.

In the space of a few hours, scores of people were killed

in central Paris in a series of coordinated attacks.

This became a city of panic, as everyone wondered where

Suddenly, news spread that revellers at a rock

concert here in the popular Bataclan Theatre had been taken hostage.

Some concertgoers managed to escape onto the streets.

This mobile phone footage shows their utter desperation.

This girl tries to escape the bloodshed insight

The ordeal ended when French forces stormed the

building, but around 80 innocent people had already been killed.

TRANSLATION: We were piled up on each other.

We heard the shots, people screaming, as though tortured.

I saw two young men no older than 25 with Kalashnikovs.

There was one that kept gesturing for us to lay down.

We all lay down, the whole room lay down.

I was under other people and they kept shooting.

Meanwhile, not far away, associates of those gunmen continued

the killing spree in a number of Parisian restaurants.

Murdered while eating their evening meal on a normal

Friday night - it is hard to find a hipper, happier, more buzzing pocket

of Paris than these streets, filled with young locals and tourists.

The attackers did not target glitzy Paris.

With these shootings and the first suicide bombings

on French soil, they want to make everyone feel afraid and exposed.

The former owner of Bell Equipe restaurant, where 18 people were

"The people I sold this restaurant to are like family.

Seven of them were killed in the attack.

In this neighbourhood, all of us are like family.

Faced with an act of war, the country needs to take

An act of war which has been committed

by a terrorist organisation, IS, a jihadist army against France.

An act of war, which has been planned, organised,

prepared from the outside and with accomplices from the inside, which

France has declared a state of emergency.

Security is tight, with thousands of extra troops

in airports, along French borders and across the country.

Fear is everywhere in and around France,

with the investigation pointing to links in Belgium and beyond.

Iconic buildings the world over sent a clear message

of solidarity as France mourns and prepares to bury its dead.

So, what does this mean for the future of France and its relations

Community leaders here in Paris have said they

now fear what they call a tsunami of hatred.

The country is home to around five million Muslims, many of

Gavin Hewitt has been speaking to some of them

and finding out the impact of the attacks on French society.

France has the largest Muslim population in Europe,

But in the past year, there have been a series of attacks, like

on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, carried out by extremists.

Some of them grew up in the vast estates on the anonymous

Ten years ago, I watched the angry suburbs rebel.

It prompted new efforts of integration, but always,

Like a new French law to ban the niqab, a face veil.

Back then I met 26-year-old Anisa, outraged at

The uncomfortable truth is that there are, today, willing recruits

for a more radical, violent Islamist ideology and Muslims were reacting

Muslims in France are disgusted by this, what else would you think?

Do you think we like being pointed at?

Everywhere we go, people give us a bad look.

These days, when we go for jobs, they do not accept us.

From conversations here, it is clear that some young people do feel

isolated from French secular society and that some do have a sense

of grievance about French foreign policy, particularly in the Middle

East, but people struggle to explain why young men would come

down here and just open fire at people having a meal.

In this restaurant, Safer helped save the lives of two

After a spray of bullets, I ran and took the girls who were

But why any of this took place, I have no idea.

Earlier this year, President Hollande and Europe's

leaders linked arms in defiance against violence, but it

has proved easy for extremists to paint President Hollande's

interventions in the Middle East as part of a crusader campaign.

2,000 French Muslims are thought to have joined the war in Syria.

In France, there are deep political divisions.

The far-right led by Marine Le Pen continues to pull strongly,

and already, questions are being asked as to whether any

of the suspects travelled with the recent groups of refugees.

After the Charlie Hebdo killings, France came together, hoping unity

would defeat the extremists, it did not work out that way.

Well, the attacks highlighted the failures of the French intelligence

services and it's prompted a huge international police operation to

Part of that operation is focused on Belgium, in particular, the district

of Molenbeek, in Brussels, called by some the jihadi capital of Europe.

Several of the attackers have lived there, including Abdelhamid Abaaoud,

Ian Pannell reports now on the Belgian connection

This neighbourhood has become notorious for links to terrorism,

home to at least three militants involved in the Paris attacks.

But residents reclaimed the streets to cast

A message of peace and solidarity with victims of terrorism.

And overlooking the scene, high on a balcony, were relatives of

One member of the Abdeslam family spoke exclusively to the BBC.

He does not want to be identified because he is worried

But he is a close relative of Brahim, who died in Paris,

and his brother, Salah, who is a key suspect of the Paris

If you were able to speak to Salah now, what would you say?

I would ask him to surrender, to give an explanation, I would

We really hope he surrenders before the police kill him

Both brothers were friends with Abdelhamid Abaaoud,

a leading Islamic State fighter, also from Belgium.

He is accused of organising the Paris attacks.

Back in Molenbeek, we met Farid, a neighbour

and shopkeeper who knew the alleged ringleader, Abdelhamid Abaaoud.

the only change that was visible was that he started to grow a beard

But I knew him as a hard-working shop owner until one

Six days of mourning and prayers, but doubts and fear lingers

about what may still come to pass, and questions persist

about how to stop young men from places like Molenbeek, embracing

The news that the attacker who blew himself up at the Stade de France

entered Europe as a refugee last month has huge implications

Ahmed Almohamed was identified by fingerprints

and passport details, found at the scene, matching those who arrived

Gabriel Gatehouse has been tracing his route from the Greek island

We are heading to Medicine Island, a lump of scrub and ock

But for those who dump their lifejackets here, this represents

salvation, the entry point to Europe.

They come in their thousands, fleeing violence at home.

But now it seems one of them has brought the war with them.

Well, it was on this rocky outcrop, we understand,

that someone with a passport in the name of Ahmed Almohamed was

The passport may have been a fake, but we do know that one of the Paris

attackers gained entry to the EU posing as a Syrian refugee - that is

an earthquake for a continent in the midst of a migration crisis and for

the people who continue to arrive every day.

Because of the heavy war in my country.

We may not know the true identity of the man named as Ahmed Almohamed.

The Coast Guard brought Ahmed Almohamed to Leros.

There, passengers go through a process of registration,

the Greek and EU officials take fingerprints and photographs and ask

I have spoken to an official who has said that he

remembers Ahmed Almohamed from his registration here.

He has told me that he arrived on a boat with 70 or 80 other

Syrians and immediately something did not feel quite right about him.

He said that he kept himself to himself.

He told me he would have highlighted his concerns to an intelligence

More than 500,000 refugees and migrants have entered Europe

Border forces across the continent are ill-equipped to conduct

On a small island like Leros, they are simply not capable

Many refugees in the last year have passed through Leros,

We think all the time, maybe some of them, are not really refugees.

The police have told us they were not authorised to give interviews

but one officer spoke to us off camera.

He said specially-trained experts at key border crossings can help

It requires resources, he told me, but if we wanted a safe Europe,

The Paris bomber appears to have travelled across Europe

From Leros, a man with a passport in the name of Ahmed Almohamed takes

Serbia registers the same name entering

On 8 October he turns up in a refugee camp in Croatia

before crossing into Hungary, believed to be heading for Austria.

Until last Friday, when he detonated a suicide vest

On Leros, the never-ending stream of migrants continues unabated.

Ahmed Almohamed may have been only one jihadist in a million

refugees, but this crisis is an issue that is

testing the very bonds that hold Europe together, and that question

So, why have Islamic State brought their jihad or holy war to the

Some experts are saying it is because the group is losing

the battle in Iraq and Syria, after months of attacks led

by the United States and strongly supported, of course, by France.

Quentin Somerville looks at the increasingly global threat

Kurdish forces taking back the town of Sinjar and in Iraq, the so-called

They fled from here but not before they had torn the town apart.

We still do not know how many died under their year-long rule.

But it is not the only place where they are in retreat.

In Syria, the Kurds and others with US air power have taken back miles

On its home ground, the Islamic State is faltering.

But further afield, it is bringing pain and terror.

In Beirut, they are burying their loved ones

More than 40 people were killed in a busy shopping street on Thursday.

Lebanon is in grief, it is one of the bloodiest attacks in years.

And in Egypt too, fresh tactics and fresh horror from Islamic State

bombers who may have brought down a Russian passenger plane.

The United States and Russia stood side-by-side in condemning IS

We are witnessing a kind of mediaeval and modern fascism

It has no regard for life and it seeks to destroy and create

chaos and disorder and fear, and the one thing we can say to those

people is that what they do in this is stiffen our resolve, all of us.

Here in Iraq, the Islamic state behaves like an

army, it captures towns and villages and sends men onto the battlefield.

But in Sinjar and over the border into Syria, it has tasted defeat.

It is far from beaten but the Islamic State is under pressure and

That increasingly, the group will focus it attacks outside of its home

In Iraq and Syria, the offences against IS continue,

The front lines in this war are now closer to home.

Quentin Somerville, BBC News, Sinjar, in northern Iraq.

Despite the shock and horror over what took place here in Paris,

there were many moments this week of defiance and solidarity.

The English and French football fans united as their national teams

The stadium in London was filled with the sound of 70,000

This was the welcome Wembley gave to France, a national stadium

seen with new eyes, a sport seen with new significance.

They had been given the option to pull out, but refused.

Outside, fans told me time and again this night, these tickets, where

We are fighting for freedom, you know?

We saw his war medals, so, absolutely.

We could have been them, we could have been in Paris, any one

We are here because everyone needs to be here,

they need to come out and show that nothing is going to stop us.

There was high-security, yes, but fear?

"We have come from Paris", they shouted.

Before they are joined by English fans,

Alexia and her friends told me they would not be bowed

by the terrorists, even though they had taken the life of their friend

It is about standing altogether, not just France,

but England as well, together, and, yeah, just show them that we want

We cannot wait to sing La Marseillaise.

Has a visiting team's anthem been sung

The cousin of Lassana Diarra was also killed in the attacks,

this was a moment to reflect, to take comfort in 70,000 voices united

And after the anthem, and the applause...

We thank you for showing your support.

If we did not come, it would say that we are scared of terrorism.

By coming, we show that we are brave.

It was a night that sent out a clear message that life, this way

We end tonight with some words from Antoine Leiris. He lost his wife at

the Bataclan Theatre. This is his words.

On Friday night you stole the life of an exceptional being, the love

of my life, the mother of my son, but you won't have my hatred.

I don't know who you are and I don't want to know - you are dead souls.

If this God for which you kill indiscriminately made

us in his own image, every bullet in the body of my wife will have

So, no, I don't give you the gift of hating you.

You are asking for it but responding to hatred with anger would be giving

in to the same ignorance that made you what you are.

You want me to be afraid, to view my fellow countrymen with

mistrust, to sacrifice my freedom for security.

She was just as beautiful as when she left on Friday night, just as

beautiful as when I fell hopelessly in love over 12 years ago.

Of course I'm devastated with grief, I admit this small victory,

I know she will accompany us every day and that we will find ourselves

in this paradise of free souls to which you'll never have access.

The moving words of Jerome Chauris who probably sums up the thoughts

and feelings of many who lost loved ones in last week's attacks. That is

all for this week's Reporters. Goodbye for now. -- Antoine Leiris.

I saw two young men no older than 25 with Kalashnikovs.

They can do this again and again, but we will be here, we will never

give up.