The suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, has been identified as one of those killed in Wednesday’s raid in the suburb of Saint Denis, the Paris prosecutor says.
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Officials said a third body was discovered amid the wreckage at an apartment that French police raided Wednesday.
More than 100 French officers held the apartment under siege for seven hours. A source close to the investigation said the female bomber who was killed might have been Abaaoud’s cousin. During a violent exchange of gunfire, one of the people inside the apartment detonated an explosives vest. Glham is believed to have killed a French woman in her auto, but then did not continue the rest of his alleged plan after he contacted authorities to call for an ambulance because he had injured himself.
“The shooting resumed. The police were firing from the roof of the building opposite”.
A French anti-terrorist commander today described watching her head “fly through a window” and land on the street outside.
But the global manhunt for Salah Abdeslam has so far drawn blanks.
He made the announcement in a speech to the Senate, which is expected to approve a three-month extension to France’s state of emergency.
He said: “Terrorism hit France, not because of what it is doing in Iraq and Syria… but for what it is. But we know and bear in mind that there is also a risk of chemical or bacteriological weapons”, Valls said.
With Belgium under pressure after France said the attacks were plotted there, the raft of new measures also included putting ankle bracelets on radicals, launching possible night raids and extending detention periods for terror suspects.
A pedestrian walks past a mural which reads “Pray for Paris” on Place de la Republique.
According to the source, after police learned that Abaaoud was in France and not in Syria as they previously thought, they set out to find Aitboulahcen in the hope he may be with her.
“It is urgent for Europe to come together, organise and defend itself against the terrorist threat”, Mr Cazeneuve said.
He was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a Belgian court earlier this year after being tried in absentia for recruiting for Daesh.
Cazeneuve said French officials received no warning that Abbaoud, a Belgian citizen, had returned to Europe until November 16, three days after the Paris attacks, when a non-Europe country told French authorities there were signs of his presence in Greece.
He was also linked to foiled terror attacks in Europe, including one aboard a Paris-bound high speed train that was prevented by two U.S. soldiers overpowering the attacker.
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Prosecutors confirmed Abdelhamid Abaaoud died in a fierce shootout with police who stormed the flat in northern Paris early on Wednesday.
