They also said Aitboulahcen had not blown herself up with a suicide vest, as initially believed, which suggests the body parts collected after the raid belonged to the third, unidentified, person. An eighth man is still on the run, and there has been much speculation about a possible ninth attacker.
Advertisement
Meanwhile, a third body was discovered in the wreckage of the flat where Abaaoud died in a shoot-out with police on Wednesday.
French authorities suspect that last Friday’s attack was largely organised in Syria and Belgium, where Abaaoud apparently had access to a team of loyal confederates with backgrounds similar to his own.
A black Seat vehicle believed to have been used in the attacks was later found in Montreuil.
He was also spotted on CCTV driving one of the black Seat vehicles which carried one of the groups of attackers in Paris.
In the past week police have used the state of emergency decree to enter 793 premises across France. Speaking to Belgian media, Ibrahim’s 36-year-old wife, Naima, said she was unaware Brahim had become a Daesh member.
Three police officials say the woman killed during a raid on an apartment in suburban Paris was the cousin of Abaaoud. Police stormed the building at 4.20am the next morning. Much of the focus is on Molenbeek, a poor Brussels district that is home to many Muslim immigrants.
France has called for inter-European flights to be included in the data sweep and wants the information it retains – names, credit card details, itinerary and other personal data -to be kept for one year instead of one month.
Abaaoud was sought in connection with the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and wounded more than 300 others. Subject of global arrest warrant since late 2013.
Seven of the eight people arrested on Wednesday following the police raid in Saint-Denis have been released.
Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said Abaaoud was traced to an apartment in Saint-Denis through phone taps and surveillance.
Belgium police are still investigating ties between Brussels and the attack.
It describes a 25-year-old born in Idlib, a rebel-held city in north-west Syria, and the Paris prosecutor’s office said fingerprints from the attacker match those of a person who travelled through Greece last month.
So we need a thorough vetting system for the refugees and more security at the borders, both Canada (9/11 hijackers “slipped in” across the northern border) and Mexico.
European Union nations have agreed to tighten border controls immediately in the wake of the Paris attacks.
Advertisement
US and Iraqi intelligence officials told the Associated Press that Islamic State has a branch seeking to produce such weapons.
