The assault began before dawn Wednesday at a decrepit squat in a close suburb of Paris when scores of French police officers stormed a third-floor apartment in search of their elusive quarry: Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian suspected of organizing last week’s deadly attacks by the Islamic State in Paris. The assault team faced an immediate setback: The explosive charges they placed at the apartment’s armored door didn’t immediately succeed in breaching it, giving the terrorists inside time to regroup and mount a fierce resistance.
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A French police dog named Diesel, who was killed in a raid targeting the alleged mastermind of the Paris attacks and another cell of extremists, was last night being honoured as a hero all over the world.
Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said at the end of the operation that investigations following Friday’s attacks allowed police “to obtain telephonic surveillance and witness testimony which led us to believe that Abaaoud was likely to be in an… apartment in Saint-Denis”.
SOCCER SCHEDULE STANDS: European soccer body UEFA said all 40 Champions League and Europe League matches scheduled for next week will go ahead as planned, including Paris Saint-Germain’s away match against Swedish club Malmo.
At least two people were killed in the raid – a woman thought to have blown herself up with a suicide vest and another body that was found riddled with bullets – according to Paris prosecutor Francois Molins.
However, a DNA test is expected to provide the final evidence.
He is someone who openly mocked the inability of Western law enforcement agencies to catch him. The security official said the bulletin was sent to authorities across Europe, not only to Spain.
A few residents in the area told CNN they had seen Abaaoud recently in the neighborhood and at a local mosque. Hollande said French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle had left to support military operations against IS in Syria.
By late Wednesday, the new question was whether or not he is even alive.
“He’s believed to be a senior Islamic State operative”, says Grainne McCarthy, Paris bureau bhief for the Wall Street Journal. But two USA officials said that many, though not all, of the attackers identified so far were on the U.S.no-fly list.
Soldiers operate in St. Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, Wednesday, November 18, 2015.
Police are hunting for two other individuals, including 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, suspected of taking part in the attacks with his suicide-bomber brother Brahim.
Investigators are also still digging into other angles related to Friday’s attacks, including the whereabouts of Abdeslam, the French suspect who was last seen heading toward the Belgian border in the hours after the massacres took place. It is known that seven were killed in the carnage on Friday, most after detonating suicide belts. “Kalashnikovs. Starting again”, Guizani said.
Paris police say two people have been detained, and two police officers injured in the standoff in Saint-Denis. Eight people were arrested and forensic scientists were working to confirm if two or three militants died in the violence.
“My name and picture were all over the news yet I was able to stay in their homeland, plan operations against them, and leave safely when doing so became necessary”, said Abaaoud.
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US President Barack Obama’s top adviser on counterterrorism, Lisa Monaco, told cable channel MSNBC there was “no credible threat” against the United States at the moment.
