News reported Monday that two people have been arrested and charged with “participating in a terrorist attack” on Saturday, as per Belgian authorities.
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Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said a probe into the attacks allowed police “to obtain telephonic surveillance and witness testimony which led us to believe that Abaaoud was likely to be in an… apartment in Saint-Denis”. Two still remain unidentified and a manhunt continues for another. He did not say there was a specific threat of such an attack.
In a statement, the Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed that Abaaoud died in the raid and his body had been identified based on skin samples.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attacks that left 129 dead and over 350 wounded Friday night in Paris.
Multiple media organizations, citing unnamed sources close to the French investigation, said Abaaoud’s cousin may have been the female suicide bomber.
Amimour was one of the Bataclan concert hall bombers.
The jihadis were set to carry out a second attack targeting Charles de Gaulle airport and the city’s financial district La Defense, according to reports.
Europe was on high alert with at least one of the Paris attackers on the run, as France and Russian Federation formed an unusual alliance against the Islamic State jihadists who have claimed the worst attacks in French history. The other brother was arrested at the weekend, but later released. I say it with all the precautions needed. My two brothers are normal and I have never noticed anything odd.
“We don’t know where they are right now”.
One man from the auto, Salah Abdeslam is already being sought by police.
Another person was also killed in the raid, a woman who blew herself up with an explosives vest.
France has stepped up its airstrikes against extremists in Syria since last Friday’s attack.
Explosions and gunfire rang out as French police stormed a building in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis where Abdelhamid Abaaoud was believed to be hiding, a senior police official told The Associated Press.
A bus driver and a bar owner were among the jihadists, most of whom were French and Belgian nationals, while one of them had a passport apparently issued in Syria.
He was wanted on worldwide warrants and had been sentenced in his absence in Belgium to 20 years in prison, said Mr Cazeneuve.
In a televised address today Francois Hollande said military operations in the Middle East would be intensified just days after it launched attacks on ISIS, also known as Daesh, destroying a number of targets.
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He said: “We’re thinking of the victims and their families but you have to understand that we have a mum, a family and above all he’s still her son”.
