Paris terror attacks: Reports suspected mastermind killed during blitz-style sweep

Abdelhamid Abaaoud is the suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks. Photo / AP

• Two killed in raids yet to be identified
• Suspected mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud not one of arrested
• Terrorists fired more than 5,000 rounds at elite police forces
•

A massive police raid Wednesdays killed the suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks during a blitz-style sweep, two senior European intelligence officials said, after investigators followed leads that the fugitive militant was holed up north of the French capital and could be plotting another wave of violence.

More than 100 police and soldiers stormed the building during a seven-hour siege that left two dead including the suspected overseer of the Paris bloodshed, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian extremist who had once boasted he could slip easily between Europe and the Islamic State strongholds in Syria.

The confirmation was made after forsenic experts combed through the aftermath - blown-out windows, floors collapsed by explosions - presumably seeking DNA and other evidence. The intelligence officials spoke on condition of anonymity before announcements from authorities.

In an earlier press conference Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins said the identities of those slain in the raid in the town of Saint-Denis is still being investigated.

He said at least two people died in the raid, but that he wasn't in "a position to give a precise and definitive number for the people who died."

French special forces are seen on 'Rue de la Republique'. Photo / Getty Images

"There are two people dead but it will take a bit longer to get the additional details, because the building had to be propped up because it was threatening to collapse."

The death of the Abaaoud closed one major dragnet in the international search for suspects from Saturday's carnage that killed at least 129 people and wounded 350 others. At least one other suspect believed closely linked to the Paris attacks remains at large.

But it raised other worrisome questions, including the apparent ability of Abaaoud to evade intelligence agencies while traveling through Europe and whether other possible Islamic State cells could be seeking to strike again.

It also left no doubt that other potential threats remained.

The target of the raid, an apartment building in the Saint-Denis suburb, was believed to be linked to plans to stage a follow-up attack in the La Defense business district, about 10 miles away, two police officials and an investigator close to the investigation said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.

As security forces closed in, a woman set off a suicide blast - possibly an explosive-rigged vest or belt - after opening fire. In addition, at least seven people were arrested before the showdown was over in the historic heart of Saint-Denis, a teeming quarter with a large immigrant population.

The damaged building that was raided by special forces. Photo / Getty Images

French media identified the suicide bomber as Hasna Aitboulahcen, a cousin to Abaaoud. The 26-year-old French citizen is a former manager of Beko Construction, a company in Epernay-sur-Seine, a town north of Saint-Denis. That company was closed in 2014.

Nations remain on edge

Five days after the worst violence on French soil since World War II, European nations remained on edge, enhancing vigilance against possible attacks by Islamist militants who have promised to bring the brutal tactics employed in Iraq and Syria to the West.

President François Hollande, seeking to reassure French citizens unnerved by the bloodshed on the streets of Paris, said the attacks would not alter the French way of life.

"We are at war against terrorism, terrorism which declared war on us," Holland said at a meeting of French maoyors. "It is the [Islamic State] jihadist organisation. It has an army. It has financial resources. It has oil. It has a territory.

"It has allies in Europe, including in our country," he continued, "with young, radicalised Islamist people. It committed atrocities there and wants to kill here. It has killed here."

He renewed his case for an extension to a state of emergency decreed after the attacks and also for changes to the constitution that he said would make France safer.

When Wednesday's raid began, heavily armed police clad in military gear - some with their faces covered by balaclavas - moved quickly through the dark streets, while helicopters scanned the streets from the skies. For hours, traffic and public transportation were halted, and schools were shuttered.

Uthayaseelan Sanmugan, a 38-year-old cook who lives near the targeted apartment, said he woke up at 4:30 a.m. to the sound of gunfire, went to his window and saw the lights of weapon lasers outside.

"When I got to the street, I saw a lot of blood on the sidewalk. The blood of the terrorists."

Residents were instructed to stay inside their homes.

"I heard gunshots, and, sometime around 7 a.m., a huge blast, an explosion," said Kelly Ovo, a 45-year-old day laborer who lives close to the apartment under siege.

French police reported that Diesel, a 7-year-old police dog, was "killed by the terrorists" in the raid.

Molins told reporters that the operation was launched after authorities had received information - potentially tips or intelligence information - that Abaaoud was in the area.

Abaaoud, an ardent Islamic State supporter linked to several other terrorist attempts, was believed to be in Syria earlier this year. But some officials speculate he could have returned to Europe, perhaps passing undetected among the flood of asylum seekers pouring into Greek islands from Turkey.

The siege appeared to have been aided by another potential breakthrough in the probe: the discovery of a mobile phone in a garbage can near the Bataclan Concert Hall, the site of one of Friday's assaults.

The phone's data contained a map of the music venue, French media reported, along with a chilling text message sent shortly after the first gunmen entered: "Let's go, we're starting."

The information on the mobile phone opened fresh leads, including to an apartment southeast of Paris in Alfortville, according to Mediapart, a French news outlet.

The hunt for suspects in Saturday's attacks, which took place at a concert hall, several bars and restaurants, and a soccer match, French officials cast a wide net for potential suspects. Across France, 118 additional raids were conducted overnight on Tuesday, with at least 25 arrests. That brought to 414 the total number of raids launched throughout France since Friday's attack, the Interior Ministry said.

After Saturday's assaults, which laid bare the shortcomings of European intelligence agencies' ability to prevent militant attacks, officials across the continent have remained on high alert.

In Copenhagen, a terminal at the city's international airport was briefly evacuated after "an overheard conversation about a bomb," police said in a Twitter post. The terminal was later reopened.

Countries including Sweden and Italy raised terror alerts. Extra security was posted in St. Peter's Square, where Pope Francis addressed pilgrims.

French authorities, meanwhile, issued a pan-European bulletin asking people to watch for a Citroen Xsara car that could be carrying Salah Abdeslam, a French militant also accused of having a direct role in the attacks, the Spanish news site El Español reported Wednesday.

On Wednesday, authorities in Hanover, Germany, abruptly called off a friendly soccer match between Germany and the Netherlands that Chancellor Angela Merkel had planned to attend. One target of Friday's attacks was a friendly soccer match between France and Germany at a crowded stadium north of Paris - not far from the Saint-Denis raids. No explosives were found at the German site.

In Brussels, another soccer match between Belgium and Spain was also cancelled.

But France's secretary of sport, Thierry Braillard, said soccer matches around the country will go ahead as planned. "Life must go on," he told the sports newspaper L'Equipe. German officials said soccer matches would be played as scheduled as well.

In a measure of French concerns, the country on Tuesday invoked for the first time a European Union mutual aid pact that calls for members of the bloc to assist other member states if they are attacked.

Air strikes continue

France continued air strikes Tuesday night against Islamic State targets in Syria, a significant escalation to its military participation in the U.S.-led campaign against the Islamic State. Also on Wednesday, France's only aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, embarked from Toulon port en route to the eastern Mediterranean, where its fighter jets will take part in operations against the militant group.

Also Tuesday, Russia conducted a "significant" number of strikes on Raqqa, possibly using sea-launched cruise missiles and long-range bombers, a U.S. defense official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the Russian operation. Those strikes follow the Russian government's assessment that explosives brought down an airliner full of Russian tourists over Egypt last month. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack.

Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, who spent 30 years serving in the CIA, said raids in Paris are also likely focussing on hunting down the group's bombmaker. Suicide belts worn by the assailants were likely assembled in Europe, rather being smuggled in, he said.

"That means that there's somebody somewhere close to Paris that knows how to make suicide belts," he said. "I suspect that whoever had those skills wasnn't wasnted in the operation. A bombmaker is very important in a terrorist group."