“I ask Allah to accept the fruitful deeds of the shuhada [martyrs] who terrorized the crusaders of America, France, Canada, Australia, Germany and Belgium”, he said at the end of the interview. The newspaper reported he had applied for asylum in Serbia in Presevo before crossing into Croatia and Austria.
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Not much is known about the third suicide bomber at the Stade de France. The latter attack was stopped by American passengers who restrained a gun-toting man before he could open fire. Belgium as a whole has spawned almost 500 jihadists for Syria and Iraq from a population of only 11 million-the highest figure per capita in the European Union, security services said.
It may not have been the only missed opportunity before and after France’s deadliest extremist attack since World War II.
France’s response on Monday gained pace with counter-terrorism raids arrests across the country and “massive” airstrikes have been launched on ISIS targets in Syria, as the French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, warned of potential further attacks.
Clues and evidence appeared to be piling up Sunday. One of the brothers was killed in the attacks, and another was arrested by Belgian police, Thoreau said.
But officials are still trying to figure out who the assailants were and how they planned and carried out near-simultaneous massacres at restaurants, bars and a concert hall in the French capital without being detected beforehand by intelligence agencies.
Salah rented a black Volkswagen Polo used by a group of hostage-takers who killed at least 89 people dead inside the Bataclan concert hall. The prosecutor’s statement said three members of his family have since been arrested. The relatives haven’t been charged.
French media named that suspect as Belgian national Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 27. “Molenbeek is linked every time”, he said.
It’s possible suspects who were directly involved in the attacks remain at large, a French counterterrorism source close to the investigation told CNN. “We did not think for a moment that one of our brothers was related to these attacks”.
“I had two brothers with absolutely normal conduct”, Mohammed Abdeslam told reporters in Brussels after his release.
German authorities are investigating claims that an Algerian man detained Monday had warned fellow migrants at a refugee shelter of the impending attacks. He had become radicalised in 2010 after attending a mosque near Chartres from his home town of Courcouronnes, 25 miles from Paris. Three other people had earlier been arrested in Belgium.
And earlier in the day hundreds of people fled the Place de la Republique after fireworks were set off.
“As a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally, we have worked together to bring about pressure on ISIL even as we also try to bring about a political transition inside of Syria that can relieve the suffering of so many people and eliminate the environment in which ISIL can operate”, Obama said. ISIL is another acronym for ISIS. He has vowed merciless revenge on ISIS, which France is already bombing in Iraq and Syria as part of the U.S-led coalition against the militant group.
But city authorities vowed amid a state of emergency to resume normal life.
But a French official familiar with the case described Abaaoud as the “centerpiece” seeming to unite Friday’s attackers.
“It was only after the Paris attacks that the Turkish authorities received an information request about Omar Ismail Mostefai from France”.
People were still out around the city Saturday, a few posing for selfies along the Seine or stealing a kiss in front of the Eiffel Tower. But the tower itself – like many other tourist attractions, shops and public buildings – has been closed in the aftermath of the attacks.
Security has been stepped up, with military reinforcements drafted in.
Neighbors were told to stay away from the street where masked police have sealed off a section.
Sadness and fear are taking a toll, Paris Deputy Mayor Patrick Klugman said.
“My brother Salah still has not been heard from, perhaps he just isn’t daring to show himself to the authorities”. At least 352 people were wounded in the attacks, 99 of them seriously.
Officials in the French presidential palace would not comment. They were plotting to smuggle explosives onto an aircraft in hand cream, the Russian said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is running through databases an initial batch of names that could be those of the attackers or people associated with them, according to US law enforcement officials.
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Abaaoud is thought to have orchestrated that plot from Belgium, but was expected to have traveled to Syria after the raid to fight with ISIS, say authorities.
