Paris Attacks: UN Backs 'All Necessary Measures' Against Islamic State

November 21, 2015

The UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution to "redouble" action against Islamic State, following last week's deadly attacks in Paris.

The French-drafted document urges UN members to "take all necessary measures" in the fight against IS.

IS said it carried out the Paris attacks, in which 130 people died.

It also claimed deadly bombings in Lebanon this month, while an IS-linked group said it downed a Russian passenger plane in October.

The UN resolution 2249 also condemns recent attacks in Sousse, Tunisia, and Ankara, Turkey.

It came as the Belgian authorities raised the terror alert to the highest level in the capital Brussels, warning of an "imminent threat".

Some of the Paris attackers had lived in Brussels. The only survivor of the group, Salah Abdeslam, is still on the run and is thought to have gone back there.

The Belgian authorities also announced that a suspect had been charged with involvement in the attacks, bringing the number of people charged there to three.

The UN Security Council called on member states to "eradicate the safe haven" IS and other militant groups had established over parts of Iraq and Syria.

The document also stresses that nations should "redouble and co-ordinate their efforts to prevent and suppress terrorist attacks".

However, it does not invoke the UN's Chapter VII, which gives specific legal authorisation for the use of force.

France and Russia have argued that military action is already justifiable because of the right of countries to self-defence.

Earlier, French officials said the cousin of the presumed ringleader of the 13 November attacks in Paris did not blow herself up in Wednesday's police raid in Saint-Denis as previously thought.

In an exclusive interview with the BBC, a member of the police assault team involved in the raid said Hasna Ait Boulahcen, 26, was "trying to say she was not linked to the terrorists, that she had nothing to do with them and wanted to surrender".

But he said that due to prior intelligence, "we knew that she was trying to manipulate us".

Officials said the suicide bomber was a man, who - alongside with alleged ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud - was also killed.

(BBC)