Three people died in the raid last Wednesday on an apartment in the northern Paris suburb of St-Denis: Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 28, a Belgian militant who had fought for the Islamic State; his cousin Hasna Aitboulahcen, 26; and a man whose identity remains unknown to the authorities.
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The analysis “leads us to believe that Abaaoud returned to the scene of the crimes after the attack carried out on the people sitting at tables at restaurants and while the BRI [French elite police] were intervening at the Bataclan”, the prosecutor said.
The prosecutor also gave details of two people previously charged with terrorist offences and said that a fifth, unnamed, person had been charged.
The prosecutor said he wants him charged with participation in a terrorist enterprise.
Bendaoud acknowledged in a television interview giving shelter to two people from Belgium, but said he didn’t know who they were or what they planned.
On Sunday evening, French police issued a photograph of one of the suicide bombers who is thought to have killed himself outside the Stade de France – one of the sites of the city-wide attacks that killed 130 people.
The 30-year-old was seen in CCTV footage getting petrol on the Paris-Brussels motorway with another wanted man, Salah Abdeslam, two nights before the November 13 attacks, police said on Tuesday, adding that Abrini is risky and probably armed.
Belgium’s state prosecutor has issued an global arrest warrant for Mohamed Abrini (left, in CCTV images), who was seen with Salah Abdeslam, suspected to be the eighth attacker mentioned by ISIS when it claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks. The prosecutor differed and said his suspected links with the attackers were being investigated.
A suspected suicide belt with a similar “configuration” to those used in the Paris attacks earlier this month was found Monday, just south of the French capital, sources close to the investigation said. Abdeslam is also at large.
Despite remaining at the highest security alert levels, Brussels prepares for its annual Christmas markets, November 24, 2015.
Data released on Monday showed that new flight bookings to Paris, one of the world’s most visited cities, fell by over a quarter in the week after the 13 November attacks.
Security officials have also conducted 1,233 searches and seized close to 200 arms – including “weapons of war” such as automatic rifles and explosives, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told parliament.
French President Francois Hollande is due to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday, as part of a diplomatic push to address the threat from IS. He didn’t specify what the charges were or whether they were linked to the attacks. USA authorities said the likelihood of such attacks will continue as members of IS return from Syria and Iraq, and other individuals not affiliated with terror groups engage in violence on their own.
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On Tuesday, Hollande met US President Barack Obama in Washington, while on Thursday he is scheduled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.
