Police on Thursday confirmed that Abdelhamid Abaaoud was killed in gunbattle when they raided a house in a Paris suburb early Wednesday where the he was holed up.
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Speaking to France Info on Friday, national police chief Jean-Marc Falcone said that all security forces “are working together” in the hunt for remaining suspect, Salah Abdeslam.
A woman at the flat – reported in French media to be Abaaoud’s cousin – died during the raid after activating a suicide vest.
The anniversary fell on the same day that a seriously injured victim died, and a third body was found in an apartment raided by police searching for suspects in the attacks.
Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said the intelligence “led us to believe that, considering their armaments, the structured organisation and their determination, they were ready to act”.
Abaaoud, who was under an global arrest warrant, was thought to have been in Syria – where he had boasted of planning attacks on the West. They said they were unaware Abaaoud had returned to Paris before Friday’s terrorist attacks.
The French Parliament has extended the state of emergency for a further three months from 26 November.
The cooperation between French and Moroccan intelligence services was reactivated in January following the deadly attacks on the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris. Ait Boulahcen was initially believed to have blown herself up during the raid, but investigators later determined that she had not detonated an explosive device and herself and was probably killed during the shootout.
“It is urgent for Europe to come together”, said French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls said he welcomed the death of “one of the masterminds” of the attacks.
Authorities in Belgium yesterday launched six raids in Molenbeek and other areas of Brussels linked to another of the suicide bombers, Bilal Hadfi, a French citizen who blew himself up outside the soccer stadium.
Following the attacks in the French capital which left 129 dead, she said there now needed to be “accelerated progress” on an EU-wide agreement on tackling the illicit trade in firearms.
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Abaaoud reportedly persuaded his brother, Younes, to go to Syria and join the Islamic State when he was just 13.
