french warplanes launches waves of airstrikes on ISIS' de facto capital of Raqqa in northern syria

Western intelligence agencies had attempted to track Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian citizen thought to be in Syria, but they weren't able to locate him.

Abaaoud had been implicated in the planning of a number of terrorist attacks and conspiracies in Western Europe before last Friday's rampage in Paris by ISIS attackers armed with assault rifles and suicide vests who killed at least 129 people and wounded hundreds more.

Believed to be close to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Abaaoud was linked to a plan to attack Belgian police that was thwarted in January. He has since been featured in ISIS' online English-language magazine. 

His current whereabouts are unknown.

Investigators have also been unable to find Salah Abdeslam, a 26-year-old French citizen suspected of involvement in the Paris attacks who slipped through authorities' grasp over the weekend.

France under a state of emergency and struggling to come to terms with the horror unleashed by ISIS on the streets of its capital.

Security forces conducted more than 128 new raids around the country overnight, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Tuesday during a radio interview.

Declaring the country to be "at war," President Francois Hollande has proposed extending the state of emergency for a further three months along with sweeping new anti-terrorism laws.

French warplanes have launched wave after wave of airstrikes on ISIS' de facto capital of Raqqa in northern Syria in recent days, the latest taking place early Tuesday.

But beyond the military moves, international efforts to track down surviving suspects tied directly to the brutal Paris attacks have so far struggled.

A major Belgian police operation Monday in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek, an area with a history of links to Islamist terror plots, failed to yield any arrests.

Abaaoud and Abdeslam both have strong ties to Molenbeek.

Abdeslam is believed to be a longstanding associate of Abaaoud, with both men previously involved in gangs in Molenbeek carrying out robberies and other petty crime.

An international arrest warrant has been issued for Abdeslam, who is reported to have rented the car that was found outside the Bataclan concert hall where three other attackers massacred 89 people.

Police stopped him hours after the attacks in a car on his way toward the Belgian border but let him go because he apparently hadn't yet been linked to the terrorist operation.

Authorities say his older brother was one of the suicide bombers.