French authorities today said they believed two other men were involved in Friday’s attacks in Paris, alongside seven other attacks who died.
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A huge manhunt was under way for 26-year-old Belgian-born French national Salah Abdeslam, one of the key suspects of the attack. Abdeslam’s brother, Brahim, blew himself up in the Paris attacks.
Salah Abdeslam, 26, is being sought by French investigators who have issued a photograph of him – describing him as “dangerous” – while Belgium has issued an worldwide arrest warrant.
Global efforts to track down surviving suspects tied directly to the brutal Paris attacks were believed to be still underway.
“You know, during the course of a vehicle journey, you can talk about everything and nothing, listen to music, even smoke a joint, but at no time, No, they didn’t talk about that”, he said.
The Post’s report said the Belgian-born militant and a young woman were killed in the raid by French police commandos. “And we are already doing that”, he said after the meeting.
Abaaoud is thought to have been involved in planning the attack on a Paris-bound train over the summer, as well as an orchestrated attack on a church outside Paris – both of which were foiled. Riot police cleared the people from the streets. El Khazzani has been jailed in France on charges including attempted murder in connection with terrorism and participation in a terror conspiracy. The target of the raid was a Belgian Islamic State member, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, accused of masterminding the carnage, but it’s still unclear whether he has been found.
Analysts have been debating to what extent the Islamic State group was devoting resources to external terrorist attacks, versus seeking to hold onto the territory it has seized in Iraq and Syria.
“I was able to leave and come to Sham (Syria) despite being chased after by so many intelligence agencies”, he said.
New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez and Gov. Terry Branstad of Iowa are the latest to say they oppose taking in Syrian refugees.
France and Russia have vowed merciless retaliation for the Paris attacks and last month’s bombing of a Russian airliner, also claimed by IS, which have galvanised global resolve to destroy the jihadists and end the more than four-year Syrian war.
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The French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle left the southern port of Toulon on Wednesday for the eastern Mediterranean to participate in intensified air strikes against Islamic State targets.
