Hollande vows to crush ‘army of fanatics’ as France pays tribute to Paris victims

President Francois Hollande vowed Friday to destroy the “army of fanatics” behind the Paris attacks but also said France would respond with more songs, concerts and shows as the nation paused to honor the 130 killed. "On November 13, a day we will never forget, France was hit at its very heart,“ Hollande told the audience at a solemn ceremony in the courtyard of the historic Invalides, the 17th-century complex housing Napoleon’s tomb. Having vowed to crush ISIS for its 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.

France will be by your side. We will gather together our strength to try to ease your pain.

Francois Hollande

Some of the wounded 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 stadium. Hollande said, "130 destinies had been stolen, 130 laughs that will never be heard again,” adding that the victims 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,” he said. However, a handful of the victims’ families boycotted Friday’s ceremony, saying the government failed to take sufficient measures to protect the nation in the wake of the jihadi shootings at the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper and a Jewish supermarket in Paris in January.

Thanks Mr President, politicians, but we don’t want your handshake or your tribute, and we hold you partly responsible for what has happened.

Emmanuelle Prevost, whose brother was one of the 90 slaughtered at the Bataclan concert hall on Nov. 13, wrote on Facebook.

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