A third body found in the rubble of an apartment raided by French police on Wednesday has been identified as the cousin of the Paris attacks alleged “mastermind”, prosecutors said on Friday.
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“A physical surveillance took place which allowed us to establish that the young woman and the jihadist went into the building in Rue Corbillon in St. Denis on Tuesday early in the evening”, the source said, declining to be identified because he is not authorized to speak officially.
Abdeslam is thought to be one of the only surviving members of the group of assailants behind the Paris attacks.
Abaaoud was involved in four out of six attack plots foiled in France this year, Cazeneuve has said.
Also unclear is her exact connection to the 28-year-old Abaaoud, the son of a Moroccan-born shopkeeper in Brussels.
Despite deadly attacks on Paris in January, talks among European Union nations and with the European Union legislature have gone at a snail’s pace for years on vital security issues while violent extremism has thrived.
The two, Mohamed Amri, 27, and 21-year-old Hamza Attou, were briefly pulled over with the brother of one of the Paris attackers by French police on a highway near the Belgian border on Saturday morning. He had bragged in the Islamic State group’s English-language magazine that he was able to move in and out of Europe undetected.
Prosecutor Francois Molins said Wednesday that the raid in Saint-Denis had stopped a “new team of terrorists” who were ready to launch another attack in a city still mourning 129 dead.
The identity of the third body was not disclosed by the prosecutors.
French police official Jean-Marc Falcone, speaking on France-Info radio, said he was unable to say if fugitive Salah Abdeslam, a friend of Abaaoud, could be back on French territory.
Abdeslam, who is wanted on an arrest warrant, was reportedly questioned and released by French officials near the Belgian border last Saturday, hours after the attacks.
As the Paris probe widened to countries across Europe, Belgian police arrested nine people in Brussels, seven in raids linked to a suicide bomber who blew himself up outside the French national stadium in Paris last Friday. His brother Brahim was one of the Paris suicide bombers.
He said Paris had received “no information” from other European countries about his arrival on the continent. The ceremony will be held at the gold-domed Hotel des Invalides, where Napoleon’s tomb lies and which is seen as a symbol of France’s military and global strength.
Of the more than 350 people wounded in the attacks, scores are in critical condition.
Under grey skies and rain, Paris on Friday marked a week since the bloodbath with silence and reflection. It was not known if she had any role in the attacks.
Next week Hollande is going to Washington and Moscow to push for a stronger worldwide coalition against IS. Seconds later, she detonated a suicide vest, killing herself and causing the floor of the apartment to collapse.
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Meanwhile, French prime minister Manuel Valls warned that terrorists could use chemical or biological weapons, and urged an extension of France’s state of emergency.
