It has also emerged police watched Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks being led into an apartment by Aitboulahcen the evening before both died during the dawn raid.
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They also said Aitboulahcen had not blown herself up with a suicide vest, as initially believed, which suggests the body parts collected after the raid belonged to the third, unidentified, person.
A third body has been found in a badly-damaged apartment block where the suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks was killed in a ferocious shootout with police, prosecutors say. “It was the body we had discovered in the building, riddled with bullets”, he said.
Meanwhile, a police source said on Friday that Abaaoud was caught on camera at a Metro train station in the capital on the night of the carnage.
This photo released Friday November 20, 2015, by the French Interior Ministry, shows police security forces during the raid in Saint-Denis region of Paris, France, on Wednesday November 18 2015.
Officials said he has been implicated in four of six foiled attacks in the country this year.
Abdelslam, who is believed to have helped carry out the Paris attacks, became Europe’s most wanted fugitive after an global arrest warrant was issued for him. An eighth man is still on the run, and there has been much speculation about a possible ninth attacker.
The decision, to be implemented immediately but on a provisional basis until the European commission formally changes the rules, means all EU nationals entering the free passport zone can now be vetted for terrorism or criminal connections against Schengen-area and national databases. Brahim blew himself up outside a bar in the bustling Boulevard Voltaire, and police believe his brother, who is still at large, was also one of the shooters. Jean-Marc Falcone, speaking Friday on France-Info radio, said he is unable to say if Abdeslam could be back on French territory.
He added that France had not passed on any information to Greece about Abaaoud having been in the country.
Demonstrations have been banned under France’s state of emergency, but dozens of French artists and cultural figures have urged people to make a lot of “noise and light”, by turning on music and lights, at 9.20pm on Friday (local time) to mark the exact time a week ago that the attacks began.
The raid took place in Saint-Denis, a northern Paris suburb.
USA and Iraqi intelligence officials told the Associated Press that Islamic State has a branch seeking to produce such weapons. Prime Minister Charles Michel announced plans for new laws to jail jihadis returning from Syria, shut unregistered mosques, expel hate preachers and ban anonymous purchases of mobile phone cards.
Molins said investigators were still trying to identify the recipient of the message.
As global efforts to fight the Islamic State group stepped up, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Russian Federation was honest in wanting to cooperate against IS in Syria.
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“It is reasonable to assume… that further attacks are likely”, Wainwright told a hearing in the European Parliament in Brussels Thursday.
