Paris, Nov. 17 (Reuters): France and Russia bombed Islamic State targets in Syria today, punishing the group for attacks in Paris and against a Russian airliner that together killed 353 people, and made the first tentative steps towards a possible military alliance.
The IS has claimed responsibility for a coordinated onslaught in Paris on Friday and the downing of a Russian charter jet over Sinai on October 31, saying they were in retaliation for French and Russian air raids in Iraq and Syria.
Still reeling from the Paris carnage that killed 129 people, France formally requested EU assistance in its battle and British Prime Minister David Cameron edged closer to extending military action against IS in Syria.
Police investigating the worst atrocity in France since World War II discovered two locations in Paris where they believe the militants launched their assault. Underlining the widening scope of the probe, police in Germany said they had arrested seven suspects, including two women.
Syrian targets hit by Russian long-range bombers and cruise missiles on Tuesday included the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa. In a separate action, French warplanes targeted Raqqa for a second day running.
Paris and Moscow are not coordinating their operations, but French President Francois Hollande has called for a global campaign against the radicals in the wake of the Paris attacks.
The Kremlin said Putin spoke to Hollande by telephone and had ordered the Russian navy to establish contact with a French naval force heading to the eastern Mediterranean, led by an aircraft carrier, and to treat them as allies.
"We need to work out a plan with them of joint sea and air actions," Putin told military chiefs.
Russia began air strikes in Syria at the end of September. It has always said its main target is the IS, but most of its bombs in the past have hit territory held by other groups opposed to its ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Hollande will visit Putin in Moscow on November 26, two days after the French leader is due to meet President Barack Obama in Washington to push for a concerted drive against the IS, which controls swathes of Syria and Iraq.
A French presidential source said Hollande also spoke by phone to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who backed calls for a united front against the militants. Iran is Assad's closest ally.
The UN refugee agency and Germany's police chief urged European countries not to demean or reject refugees because one of Friday's Paris bombers was believed to have slipped into Europe among migrants registered in Greece.
"We are deeply disturbed by language that demonises refugees as a group," UN spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said after government officials in Poland, Slovakia and the German state of Bavaria cited the Paris attacks as a reason to refuse refugees.
The head of Germany's Federal Criminal Office said there was no sign that Islamist militants had entered Germany posing as an asylum seeker to commit an attack.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Paris would spare no expense to reinforce and equip its security forces and law enforcement agencies to fight terrorism, even though that was bound to involve breaching European budget deficit limits.
"We have to face up to this, and Europe ought to understand," he told France Inter radio. The European Commission said it would show understanding to France if additional security spending pushed up its deficit.
As France geared up for a long war, the British Prime Minister said he would present a "comprehensive strategy" for tackling the IS to parliament. British war planes have been bombing the militants in Iraq, but not Syria.
"It is in Syria, in Raqqa, that Isil has its headquarters and it is from Raqqa that some of the main threat against this country are planned and orchestrated," Cameron said, referring to the IS by one of its many acronyms.
