Turkish investigators warned French officials on two separate occasions about Omer Ismail Mostefai, the first gunman identified in the Paris attacks, but never heard back from France, a senior Turkish official confirmed to Mashable Monday. Abaaoud is now in Syria, according to Reuters.
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“France is at war”, he declared during a historic joint session of Parliament on Monday, the third in France’s history since 1848.
In Belgium, the pair were charged “with a terrorist act and participation in the activities of a terrorist group”, while five others held at the weekend were freed without charge, the federal prosecutor’s office said.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced that authorities raided 168 locations and arrested 23 people overnight, according to the Associated Press. Agence France-Presse reports that police found “an arsenal of weapons”, including a rocket launcher, in the southeastern city of Lyon. Police say the 26-year old rented the vehicle that carried hostage-takers to the Paris theatre where 89 people were killed. “The one who targets the Republic, the Republic will catch him, will be implacable”.
A senior French security official told AP that their intelligence gets this kind of communication “all the time” and “every day”. Raqqa is the de facto capital of ISIS’ “caliphate”. The jets launched from sites in Jordan and the Persian Gulf, in coordination with USA forces. A Pentagon source told Fox News, “these were French strikes but they were conducted within the coalition”. “And we never thought that one of my brothers could be linked to this attack”. French authorities believe that two of his brothers were also directly involved in the attack, one who detonated a suicide bomb at the Bataclan concert venue.
The police raids took place as French prosecutors revealed the names of two of the suicide bombers, including a French-born Islamist known to police after trying to travel to Yemen in 2012, France’s BFMTV reported.
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He said he would table a Bill to extend the state of emergency declared after the attacks for three months and would suggest constitutional changes.
