The bloody attacks in Paris show that France is a target of choice for jihadists due to its air strikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, as well as its controversial ban on the burqa face veil and attitude to Muslims, analysts say.

"If you can kill an American or European infidel, especially the dirty, nasty French ... then count on Allah, kill him any way you can," said an IS spokesman, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, in 2014 as the US-led coalition launched its anti-IS raids in Iraq.

Perhaps inspired by these words, jihadist attacks against France over the past year have been of unprecedented ferocity.

In January, 17 people were killed in Paris in a string of attacks against satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, a policewoman and a Jewish supermarket. And in June, a man beheaded his boss in southeast France.

Friday night, a series of attacks that for the first time brought suicide bombers to Paris, left at least 129 people dead and 350 injured.

France is "a target due to counter-terrorism activities in north and central Africa as well as the perceived mistreatment of and discrimination against the Muslim minority in France itself," said Matthew Henman, head of Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Centre in London.

French troops have fought Islamists in Mali and currently back African forces battling Nigeria's deadly Boko Haram Islamist group. French jets have staged 283 strikes against IS targets in Iraq since September 2014.

In October 2015, France extended its air campaign to Syria where its fighter-bombers have carried out five strikes against IS training camps and oil sites. As part of the drive to intensify the campaign, the French aircraft-carrier Charles-de-Gaulle is due in the area in December.

A witness to the Friday's attack on a crowded concert hall where more 82 people were killed, Pierre Janaszak, said he heard the attackers say: "'It's the fault of Hollande, it's the fault of your president, he should not have intervened in Syria'".

But Shashank Joshi of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London said "the pretexts and causes of such attacks are exceptionally complicated, and rarely is there a single factor involved."

"I do not believe that French abandonment of air strikes would protect it from attacks, because there would simply be some further alleged provocation that would be cited by future terrorists," he added, saying that the level of sophistication of the attacks meant they were probably planned before France's Syria campaign began.

- 'Frustrations' -

Aside from its international actions, France has come under sharp attack from radical Islamists for banning headscarves in schools in 2004 and then the wearing of the burqa face veil in public in 2010, as part of its secular legacy.

Its long tradition of freedom of expression which enables public criticism of religion too has irritated religious hardliners. The attack in January against Charlie Hebdo followed the satirical weekly's publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed.

France's five million Muslims, Europe's biggest Muslim community, often rightly complain of discrimination, notably on the employment front.

"France is the country with the most frustrations linked to Islam," said sociologist Raphael Liogier, adding that was why "more than anywhere else young people are ready to sign up" to radical groups.

A total of 571 French nationals or French residents have joined IS in Iraq and Syria, of which 245 have returned and 141 have died, according to official figures.

These fighters are among the first called on to strike their country of origin, and can be seen in IS propaganda videos calling for attacks against France -- in the same way German jihadists urge strikes against Germany or Americans against the US.

France is far from having been the jihadists' only target this year - more than 200 Russians died October 30 in a plane crash claimed by IS over Egypt's Sinai. And Yemen, Tunisia, Turkey and Lebanon too have paid a price.

Two men linked to Paris attacks registered as migrants in Greece: police
Athens (AFP) Nov 14, 2015 - Two men who French police are seeking to identify in connection with the Paris attacks registered as migrants with Greek authorities earlier this year, the Greek police confirmed on Saturday.

French authorities had asked their Greek counterparts to check a passport and fingerprints of one man who died in the attacks and the fingerprints of another.

Both were thought to have registered in Greece, the main entry point into Europe for Syrian refugees.

At least one Syrian passport was found at the scene of the Stade de France attack.

The Greek minister for citizen protection, Nikos Toskas, said in a statement that one of the men had been registered on the Greek island of Leros in October.

"We confirm that the (Syrian) passport holder came through the Greek island of Leros on October 3 where he was registered under EU rules," said a statement issued by Toskas.

French police said the passport was found "near the body of one of the attackers" during the investigation into the main attack of Friday's carnage, at the Bataclan concert hall, where 82 people were killed.

The authenticity of the passport was being checked, but its discovery indicates a possible Syrian connection which has been a working hypothesis for investigators after assailants hit six separate locations in Paris late Friday.

A Greek police source said the second man had also registered in Greece, with TV station Mega adding this was also on Leros in August.

European security officials had long feared that jihadists could take advantage of the mass migration influx, mainly from war-torn Syria, that Europe has been experiencing since the beginning of the year.

"It is clear now that together with the victims of Islamo-fascism in the Middle East that come as refugees, extreme elements are crossing to Europe," Defence Minister Panos Kammenos after an emergency meeting with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

Greek police are not ruling out that the Syrian passport changed hands before the attacks.

However, a European security expert on Saturday argued: "The most logical assumption is that it's the same person, sent on a mission to Europe."

- 'Unequalled challenge' -

"If this is established, it would be the first such case. In any event, this proves that the unchecked flow poses an unequalled challenge for European security. We simply don't know who is coming through," the expert added.

Greece's junior minister for migration Yiannis Mouzalas had admitted in September that it would be "foolish" to completely discount the possibility of jihadists sneaking into Europe among the refugee wave.

Over 800,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe this year, with over 3,400 dying in the process.

But Mouzalas noted that the number of Europeans joining extremist groups in the Middle East was far higher.

"The opposite is happening. They leave from here and go over there," he said.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Saturday insisted that the refugees fleeing Syria "are hunted by the same terrorists" that struck in Paris on Friday.

"We must find solutions to the drama of the people who leave their homes, hunted by the same terrorists, and drown in the Mediterranean," Tsipras said in a televised address, after conferring with his police, migration and intelligence chiefs.

France's fight against the Islamic State
Paris (AFP) Nov 14, 2015 - France, hit late on Friday by the worst terror attacks in its history, has been taking part in air strikes on the jihadist Islamic State since September 2014 in Iraq.

It joined strikes two months ago in Syria.

-- 2014 --

- September 18: French President Francois Hollande announces his decision to agree to a request from Iraq for air support against the IS.

But he stresses "we will go no further", saying that there will be no ground troops and France will intervene only in Iraq, and not Syria .

- August 8: the United States bombards Islamic State positions in Iraq, before on September 5 launching an anti-jihadist coalition.

- September 19: French fighter jets launch their first raids against IS positions in the north of Iraq.

- October 24: Coalition forces, including French forces, strike and destroy an IS training centre in the northern region of Kirkuk.

-- 2015 --

- February 5: President Francois Hollande says the mission to push back IS had been "too slow," and vows that France will work "with more and more intensity".

- February 23: France deploys the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier in the Gulf. It wraps up its mission two months later.

- September 7: France will launch surveillance flights over Islamic State group positions in Syria, Hollande says, while ruling out sending French ground troops to Syria.

A day later two French Rafale jets based in the United Arab Emirates carry out their first surveillance flights.

- September 27: France carries out its first air strikes against IS in Syria, with six warplanes hitting an IS training camp near the eastern city of Deir Ezzor.

- October 9: French Rafale warplanes carry out a second wave of strikes overnight on IS targets in Syria, hitting an IS training camp in its Raqa stronghold.

- November 8: The French army steps up its bombing campaign against the Islamic State group's oil infrastructure with strikes in Deir Ezzor.

- November 13: A series of coordinated attacks by gunmen and suicide bombers in Paris kill at least 128 people in scenes of carnage at a concert hall, restaurants and the national stadium. The following day Islamic State claims responsibility for the killings.

"Crusader France" was guilty of "striking Muslims in the caliphate with their aircraft," IS said in a statement threatening further attacks.