Paris: The top suspect behind last week’s Paris attacks was watched by police being led into a building by a woman suicide bomber the evening before they both died there during a raid by special forces, a police source said on Friday.
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It is believed he might have been among the three assailants who opened fire from a vehicle on bars and restaurants, killing dozens of people, minutes before the Bataclan attack.
In all, seven attackers are known to have died on the night of the bloodshed which rocked France, 10 months after the jihadist attacks on a satirical magazine and Jewish supermarket.
The apartment was severely damaged in the raid and police have now uncovered a third body, a woman, in the rubble.
Three people were killed in an explosion during the raid, including suspected attack organizer Abdelhamid Abaaoud. Officials said he has been implicated in four of six foiled attacks in the country this year. The phone contained a text message sent to somebody French officials believe was Abaaoud about the time the attack started, saying: “It’s on”.
The mastermind behind the terrorist attacks in Paris, France on November 13, Friday, was Abdehamid Abaaoud, 27, the French authorities have concluded. The Belgian national of Moroccan descent was identified from fingerprints.
“We can’t say anything about the exact geographic situation of that individual”, he said. They attribute the lapses in communication, inability to keep track of suspected militants and failure to act on intelligence, to a lack of resources in a few countries and a surge in the number of would-be jihadis.
Her name was Hasna Aitboulahcen. It has been reported that she was not particularly religious and was said to be outgoing.
“Where is your boyfriend?” a police officer yells.
She retorted angrily, “He’s not my boyfriend”, and triggered her vest, becoming the first female suicide bomber to strike Western Europe. Belgium, stung by revelations that several of the attackers were based there, announced a 400-million-euro ($430 million) security crackdown.
The story supplied by French officials on the brazen and carefully coordinated assaults per week past on France’s national stadium and Paris cafes, eateries and a theatre raises disturbing questions regarding how Europe could be slipped into by a desired militant already suspected of participation in multiple schemes undetected.
Video: Is Paris Facing Tough New Reality? Paris answered last week, after the attacks. The extension was pressed by Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who warned that Islamic extremists could use chemical or biological weapons. She said the Department of Justice continues to take “robust actions”.
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Heavily armed police and soldiers patrolled on Saturday morning at key intersections of the Belgian capital, a city of more than one million that is home to the headquarters of the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation alliance and offices of many multinational corporations.
