Abdeslam’s brother Ibrahim, 31, blew himself up in a solo attack outside cafe Comptoir Voltaire.
Advertisement
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The 26-year-old was said to have been captured alive during a major Belgian special forces operation in the Molenbeek district of Brussels, according to Belgian broadcaster RTL.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the attacks were coordinated from Syria.
A Belgian national now in Syria and believed to be one of ISIL’s most active operators is suspected of being behind Friday’s attacks in Paris, acccording to a source close to the French investigation.
Valls said he was struck by the fact that young people had been targeted in Friday’s attacks on a concert hall, bars and restaurants and outside the Stade de France stadium, which left 129 people dead.
“The fact that Brussels is politically and – as to its police forces – a little bit more divided than one would expect from such a big city creates additional problems as to surveillance”, he told CNN’s Watson.
Another brother, Mohamed Abdeslam, was released “without being charged” by Belgian authorities on Monday along with four other suspects who were arrested in the wake of the carnage in the French capital, the prosecutor’s spokesman said. Why would he want to kill innocent Belgians?
And an arms dealer from the city was arrested for allegedly providing arms to Amedy Coulibaly, the ISIS sympathizer who attacked a Paris kosher supermarket in January.
French security officials have admitted that Abdeslam was one of three men inside the vehicle which had been stopped on the border on Saturday morning. Abaaoud is reportedly from the Brussels neighborhood of Moleneek, the same neighborhood in Belgium home to at least two of the Paris suicide bombers. The Paris prosecutor’s office has identified that attacker as a 31-year-old French citizen but hasn’t disclosed his name. He had rented a black Seat. But it’s not yet clear whether he was in the vehicle at the time of the attacks, the newspaper said.
Other attackers have been identified, including Ismael Omar Mostefai, a 29-year-old French citizen from the Paris suburbs who authorities say was radicalized in 2010 but wasn’t known to be associated with a terrorist group.
Five of the detainees were identified over the weekend, and on Monday another two were named by the Paris prosecutor as Ahmad al-Mohammad and Samy Amimour.
He was placed under supervision in 2012 after anti-terrorism authorities investigated an aborted attempt to travel to Yemen, the statement said.
“Not in our name”, one said.
However, Iraqi intelligence officials told the AP that they also warned France about specific details: Among them, that the attackers were trained for this operation and were sent back to France from Raqqa, the Islamic State’s de-facto capital. He had a Syrian passport, which was found near his body, whose authenticity has however not been confirmed. Hollande, who was watching the game, was evacuated from the stadium after the blasts. French officials have determined that the bomber was among refugees who arrived on the Greek island of Leros among numerous Syrian refugees on October 3.
Police carried out a series of anti-terrorism raids early Monday in France, including in a suburb of Toulouse, a suburb of Grenoble and outside Calais, French media reported. Ammunition and a large amount of cash were found at one of the locations.
Police also carried out a search warrant late Sunday in the Paris suburb of Bobigny and questioned local residents, media reports said.
Advertisement
CNN reported 23 people are in custody and 104 under house arrest, and weapons have been seized in connection with Paris attacks, according to the French Interior Minister.
