Doha: Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani sent yesterday a cable of condolences to French President Francois Hollande on the deaths in Paris caused by a terrorist attack.

The Emir condemned the act saying it contradicted all moral human and religious principles. The Emir added that the attacks targeted security and stability of France as well as the lives of innocent people.

The Emir wished the injured a speedy recovery and stressed Qatar’s denouncement of terrorism regardless of its motives.

In Vienna Foreign Minister H E Dr Khalid bin Mohamed Al Attiyah said in a statement issued by the Qatari Embassy: “The state of Qatar strongly condemns these heinous attacks that have struck the French capital causing so many victims.”

Qatar meanwhile strongly condemned the armed attacks and bombings. The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that such acts aimed at destabilising security contradict all moral and humanitarian principles and values.

The statement also reiterated Qatar’s firm stance which rejects violence in all its forms and manifestations whatever its motives and causes.

The Foreign Ministry expressed condolences of Qatar to the families of the victims killed in the attacks wishing a speedy recovery to the injured.

An angry Hollande yesterday promised a “merciless” response to a wave of attacks by gunmen and bombers that killed at least 129 people across Paris describing the assault claimed by Islamic State as an act of war against France.

In the worst attack a Paris city hall official said four gunmen systematically killed at least 87 people at a rock concert by an American band at the Bataclan concert hall before anti-terrorist commandos launched an assault.

Nearly 40 more people were killed in five other attacks in the Paris region the official said including a double suicide bombing outside the Stade de France stadium where Hollande and the German foreign minister were watching a soccer game.

The assaults came as France a founder member of the US-led coalition waging air strikes against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq was on high alert for terrorist attacks raising questions about how the attacks were able to occur.

It was the worst such attack in Europe since the Madrid train bombings of 2004 in which 191 died.

Hollande said the attacks were organised from abroad by Islamic State with internal help. Investigators were focusing on to what extent the militants were from France or from abroad.

Sources close to the inquiry said one of the dead gunmen was French with ties to Islamist militants.

The holder of a Syrian passport found near the body of one gunman passed though the Greek island of Leros in October a Greek minister said. A Greek police source said the passport’s owner was a man who had arrived in Leros with 69 refugees and had his fingerprints taken. Police declined to give his name.

The Paris attacks are sure to become a factor in the debate raging in Europe about how to handle the migrants crisis fuelled by the conflict that has emerged from the uprising in Syria.

In a sign of potential divisions ahead Poland said that the attacks meant it could not now take its share of migrants under a European Union plan. Many of the migrants currently flooding into Europe are refugees from Syria.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged world leaders gathered for a summit in Turkey yesterday to prioritise the fight against terrorism saying the Paris attacks showed the time for words was now over.

Hollande pulled out of the meetings but told Erdogan by telephone that his foreign and finance ministers would attend.

“Faced with war the country must take appropriate action” Hollande said after an emergency meeting of security chiefs. The president also announced three days of national mourning.

“France will be merciless towards these barbarians from Daesh” he said using an Arab acronym for Islamic State.

During a visit to Vienna US Secretary of State John Kerry said “we are witnessing a kind of medieval and modern fascism at the same time”.

In its claim of responsibility Islamic State said the attacks were a response to France’s military campaign.

It also distributed an undated video in which a militant said France would not live peacefully as long as it took part in US-led bombing raids against the Islamic State.

“As long as you keep bombing you will not live in peace. You will even fear travelling to the market” said a bearded Arabic-speaking militant flanked by other fighters. The attacks in which automatic weapons and explosives belts were used lasted 40 minutes. Hollande declared a national state of emergency the first since World War Two. Border controls were temporarily reimposed to stop perpetrators escaping. “The terrorists the murderers raked several cafe terraces with machine-gun fire before entering (the concert hall). There were many victims in terrible atrocious conditions in several places” police prefect Michel Cadot told reporters.

See also page 12

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