French authorities still aren’t confirming whether the suspected planner of Friday’s attacks in Paris, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was killed or arrested in Wednesday morning’s raid on an apartment in a Paris suburb.
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On Wednesday, President Francois Hollande praised security services and said France was ” at war ” with IS, which has claimed responsibility for the coordinated attacks that killed at least 129 people in Paris on Friday and wounded 350 others.
– Police sources tell CNN the raid at the apartment was “right on time” because the suspects were “about to move on a few kind of operation”.
– Five police officers were injured and a police dog was killed, police said.
Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said the dead were a woman who blew herself up with an explosive vest and a man hit by projectiles and grenades. “I never thought terrorists could have hid here”. “For what it represents, the fight we are leading to eradicate terrorism”.
Gunfire and explosions rocked the Saint-Denis area in the north of the capital near the Stade de France stadium from before dawn as terrified residents were evacuated or told to stay in their homes.
Like many who travel to the so-called “Islamic State”, his actions appear to have been motivated by a thirst for power, violence and unaccountability than religion. Security forces are seeking Salah Abdeslam, who police believe was an accomplice to the Paris attacks and whose brother Brahim Abdeslam has been named as one of the suicide bombers. I couldn’t say how many shots were fired, but it was probably 500.
Cellphone records and surveillance gathered since Friday’s attack led police to believe that Abaaoud may have been in an apartment in Saint-Denis, prosecutor Molins said today. “All will be done to determine who is who, and based on the work of forensic police, we’ll tell you who was in the apartment – and what consequences it will have for the development of the investigation”.
“I found out that it’s at my house and that the people are holed up at my flat”, he said. “No anti-Semitic or anti-Muslim act can be tolerated”, Hollande said.
As police stepped up the hunt for the fugitives, French and Russian jets pounded IS targets in the group’s Syrian stronghold of Raqa for a third consecutive day. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said a cease-fire between Syria’s government and the opposition could be just weeks away.
Across France, police have carried out 414 raids since Friday, making 60 arrests and seizing 75 weapons, including 11 military-style firearms, the Interior Ministry said.
Today, Mr. Hollande will seek to extend the state of emergency to three months following the worst terror attacks in French history.
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Highlighting USA fears over the attack, two Air France flights bound for Paris from the United States were diverted Tuesday and landed safely after anonymous threats that the carrier described as a “bomb scare”.
