Abaaoud, the 28-year-old Islamic State militant from Brussels of Moroccan origin, was believed to be inside the apartment in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis with five other heavily armed people when the raids started, according to a French police official.
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Molenbeek, a neighbourhood of the Belgian capital, Brussels, has been under the spotlight since the Paris attacks.
CNN’s Atika Shubert contributed from Saint-Denis; Margot Haddad, Paul Cruickshank and Tim Lister contributed from Paris; Jethro Mullen reported and wrote from Hong Kong; Greg Botelho and Catherine E. Shoichet reported and wrote from Atlanta.
Heavy gunfire reportedly rang out in a Paris suburb early Wednesday as French police staged a predawn raid in the search for a second terrorist believed to have escaped after Friday’s bomb and gun massacres.
Prosecutor Francois Molins said the raid was launched after information from tapped telephone conversations, surveillance and witness accounts indicated that the suspected planner of the attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, might be in a safe house in the district. Police sources have also told French journalists that a jihadist they arrested over the summer had mentioned Abaaoud to interrogators, and suggested that there were plans to attack nightclubs in Paris.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Abaaoud “played a decisive role” in the Paris attacks and played a part in four of six terror attacks foiled since spring, with one alleged jihadist claiming Abaaoud had trained him personally. The public prosecutor’s office said during the operation that a woman inside the flat blew herself up and police took three men into custody.
The Paris attacks have galvanized global determination to confront the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, bringing France, Russian Federation and the United States closer to an alliance. For proof, he pointed to their history of executions, bombings, beheadings and added that the use of chemical and biological weapons can’t be ruled out.
Elsewhere in Europe, jittery leaders and law enforcement moved to protect their populations as Rob Wainwright, director of the European Union’s police co-ordination organisation Europol, warned of “a very serious escalation” of the terror threat in Europe.
France has stepped up its air strikes against extremists in Syria, and French military spokesman Colonel Gilles Jaron said French forces have destroyed 35 IS targets in Syria since the attacks on Paris.
The U.S. state department issued a warning on Wednesday that St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Milan’s cathedral and La Scala opera house, as well as churches, synagogues, restaurants, theatres and hotels, had been identified as “potential targets”.
The Saint-Denis police operation is the most dramatic among wave upon wave of raids across France in the aftermath of the Paris attacks.
In Belgium, where numerous Paris attackers lived, prime minister Charles Michel announced a package of additional anti-terror measures, and said 400 million euro (£280 million) would be earmarked to expand the fight.
Abdeslam is believed to have fled after gunning down people at bars and cafes in Paris’ 10th and 11th arrondissements alongside his brother Brahim Abdeslam, who later blew himself up outside a bar on Boulevard Voltaire, seriously wounding one person.
“All democratic forces have to work together to strengthen our security”, Mr Michel told legislators in a special announcement.
Other: Possible third, unnamed, suicide bomber who died in Nov 13 Stade de France attacks.
A man rides his bicycle in front of a makeshift memorial next to the Bataclan concert hall in Paris, France, Wednesday, November 18, 2015.
Mr Fabius, speaking on France-Inter radio, said the group “is a monster. But if all the countries in the world aren’t capable of fighting against 30,000 people (IS members), it’s incomprehensible”.
French President Francois Hollande held an emergency meeting with senior ministers at the Elysee Palace to monitor the raid. A message on the phone read “We are off and we’re starting”.
All of those killed in the attack have now been identified, a statement from the French cabinet said.
“Some people who are planning something bad…. they will be targeted”, Javid said.
A USA official briefed on intelligence matters said Abaaoud was a key figure in an Islamic State external operations cell that US intelligence agencies have been tracking for many months. Three officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to provide details about the ongoing investigation.
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Salah Abdeslam, who is a brother of one of the terrorists who had detonated the suicide belt and killed himself was apparently stopped while in a vehicle with two other men on the French-Belgian border just hours after the attack.
