France pays tribute to victims of Paris attacks

France paid tribute on Friday to the 130 mostly young people killed while they were enjoying themselves in Paris two weeks ago by gunmen and suicide bombers in one of the most deadly attacks the nation has seen since World War II.

French flags hung from the windows of public buildings and private homes as hundreds of survivors and relatives of the dead joined political leaders for a remembrance ceremony at the military museum Les Invalides in the capital. 

With each name and age read aloud inside the monument, the toll gained new force. A majority were under 35 and they came from all over France and from 17 other countries.

"130 names. 130 lives torn away. 130 destinies ruined. 130 laughs we'll never hear again. 130 voices forever silenced," President Francois Hollande said. French newspaper Le Figaro noted that he wrote his speech himself, as he did after the Jan. 7 attacks that left 17 innocents and three perpetrators dead. 

Some victims' families and survivors of the attacks this month did not attend Friday's event, saying that the government had not learned the security lessons it should have in the January attacks. 

The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has claimed responsibility for the Nov. 13 attacks, which targeted cafes, restaurants, a sports stadium and a rock concert. More than 350 people were wounded and nearly 100 of them remain in hospital.

Hollande vowed to destroy ISIL and urged his compatriots to help combat the group simply by continuing to go to bars, restaurants and cultural and sporting events and to enjoy the simple pleasures he said ISIL members hated.

"I solemnly promise you all that France will do everything to defeat the army of fanatics who have committed these crimes, that she will act tirelessly to protect her children," he said.

"The terrorists want to divide us, to oppose us, to pit us against one another. They will fail. They have the cult of death, we have the love of life," he said.

Hollande said the Nov. 13 attacks were part of a chain stretching back to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, and he noted that many other countries – including, this month alone, Mali and Tunisia – had been hit by armed groups.

Most of the assailants in the Paris attacks killed themselves using suicide vests or were killed by police, but French and Belgian authorities are still hunting others suspected of involvement or possibly plotting new attacks.

Last week the French parliament backed a three-month extension of a state of emergency declared immediately after the attacks to allow security forces greater scope in combating armed groups.

France has also stepped up its aerial bombing campaign of ISIL targets in Syria. This week, Hollande held separate talks with the leaders of the United States, Russia, Britain, Germany and Italy on how to crush the militants.

"We will defeat this enemy. Together. With our forces, those of the republic. With our arms, those of democracy. With our institutions, with international law," a somber Hollande said.

Al Jazeera and wire services