A French official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said police had identified the suspected mastermind as Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian national believed to operating in Syria.
Advertisement
During a raid, “heavily armed police” found telephone equipment, according to AFP, after encircling the flat in the l’Abreuvoir district on Sunday night. He allegedly escaped from Belgium to Syria after a failed attack on the Belgian city of Verviers in January, The NY Times reported, citing a European security official. As for the whereabouts of his brother Salah, he told reporters: “We do not know where he is”.
Belgium has issued an global warrant for Salah Abdeslam and French police released his photo, asking people to be on the lookout but warning not to interact with him, saying he is unsafe.
Police stopped him hours after the attacks on his way toward the Belgian border but let him go because he apparently hadn’t yet been linked to the terrorist operation.
A senior Turkish official says Ankara shared information with France about one of the Paris attackers twice over the past year, but did not hear back from French authorities.
It is thought a third man was in a auto with Salah – and his 31-year-old brother Brahim Abdeslam, who blew himself up outside the Comptoir Voltaire cafe on Boulevard Voltaire – during the attacks. Homegrown terrorists were plotting to gun down police officers, and they discussed their plans by phone with a superior in Athens – a Belgian man whom authorities believed to be a puppet master in Isis’ effort to terrorise Europe.
Amimour was said to be facing terrorism charges in France.
A huge manhunt is also underway for accomplices of the Islamist cell including one of the bomb plotters who is still on the run.
Abaaoud had been implicated in the planning of a number of terrorist attacks and conspiracies in Western Europe before the Paris attacks.
World leaders, meanwhile, sought to join forces to bring peace to Syria and destroy the Islamic State jihadist network, hoping to curb the extremist menace after the Paris attacks.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Hollande and Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Tuesday.
French warplanes have launched wave after wave of airstrikes on ISIS’ de facto capital of Raqqa in northern Syria in recent days, the latest taking place early Tuesday.
– The expected arrival of aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle in the eastern Mediterranean this week will triple the country’s ability to carry out those strikes, Hollande said.
In France, 128 raids were conducted overnight, the French Interior Minister said.
“We were then able to obtain weapons and set up a safe house while we planned to carry out operations against the crusaders”, he said.
French authorities said they conducted sweeping police raids around the country, detaining 23 people.
– Belgian officials called off a scheduled football match in Brussels on Tuesday between Belgium and Spain because of security concerns.
Advertisement
Islamic state militants have claimed responsibility for the carnage.
