Belgian authorities still hunt for 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, the brother of a Paris attacker who self-detonated.
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The seven-hour siege, which was covered live by the world’s media, was over in two hours after the bomb went off, with Abaaoud killed (riddled with bullets and torn apart by grenades) and eight of his suspected accomplices arrested. Prosecutors said a passport in that name was also found in the targeted apartment.
France has launched a massive investigation to get to the bottom of exactly who was behind the shootings and bombings in Paris last Friday at the national football stadium, a famous concert venue and several bars and restaurants.
‘We have taken the measures that are necessary’.
The development comes as European Union interior and justice ministers are gathering for an emergency meeting in Brussels on how best to respond to the threat of violent extremism. He is known as the eighth person in the Paris attacks and is the only one of the terrorists who remains alive.
“We have strong reason to believe that this cell was about to commit massive terror attacks in France”, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Thursday, speaking on public broadcaster France 2.
European countries agreed Friday to new steps aimed at securing Europe’s borders in the wake of last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris, moving to impose stricter passport checks, a crackdown on weapons trafficking and an eventual new system for maintaining airline passenger lists, even as France extended its sweeping counterterrorism operations at home.
If people take the new alert seriously, Brussels will effectively be “shut down” Saturday, CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank said.
Mr Bendaoud claimed to own the flat where Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the alleged mastermind of the Paris attacks, stayed before and after the massacres. It remained unclear how Abaaoud was killed on Wednesday morning. He was apparently planning to cross the border to Syria, where the Islamic State extremist group controls much territory.
Three people died including Abaaoud and female suicide bomber Hasna Aitboulahcen, who blew herself up following an angry exchange with officers.
All five of the seven jihadis who were shot dead or blew themselves up in the Paris carnage and whose bodies have have been identified – including four Frenchmen – recently spent time in Syria, officials have said.
News of Abaaoud’s death seemed to ease a few tension in a country deeply shocked by the attacks, though officials said the aftermath was far from over. In Brussels, France and Belgium urged their European Union partners to tighten gun laws, toughen border security and choke off funds to extremist groups.
President Francois Hollande had declared the emergency after the the Paris attacks; it gives police additional powers to stop and search people, enforce house arrests and prohibit mass gatherings, among other things.
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The Islamic State (IS) jihadi, 27, was linked to a thwarted attack on a high-speed train in August which was stopped as it sped towards Paris when passengers overpowered a gunman, and an attack on a church in the Paris area.
