Abaaoud linked to foiled plots
Suspected architect of Paris attacks killed in St-Denis raids
FRENCH authorities said the alleged mastermind of last week’s deadly terrorist attacks in Paris was possibly involved in four other attacks foiled by police this year. Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 28, was killed during a violent police raid in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis on Wednesday, prosecutor Francois Molins announced in a statement.
His body was found “riddled with impacts”, after an assault that featured 5 000 bullets fired by police and at least one explosion set off by a suicide bomber. It was not clear if Abaaoud had also blown himself up, said Molins’s office.
Abaaoud was identified thanks to “papillary traces”, the prosecutor said, without offering further details.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls declared before parliament: “We know today that Abaaoud, the brain behind these attacks – one of the brains, because we have to be particularly careful and we know the threats – was among the dead.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve added: “Abdelhamid Abaaoud evidently played a decisive role in these attacks.”
The Belgian, of Moroccan origin, was a prominent member of Islamic State and the suspected mastermind of a foiled plot to kill police officers in Belgium in January.
French police had also linked Abaaoud to several attacks thwarted in their country this year, Cazeneuve said.
They include a plot in April to attack Christian churches in the Paris suburb of Villejuif. Investigators are still assessing if Abaaoud was involved with a foiled shooting on a Thalys high-speed train in August.
In August, French authorities detained a suspected jihadist who declared that he was trained by Abaaoud and instructed to carry out a violent act in France or in another European country, Cazeneuve said.
“Among the six attacks that have been prevented or foiled by the French intelligence services since spring 2015, Abaaoud appears to be involved in four of them.”
Abaaoud had been in Syria since last year, the subject of an international arrest warrant. It was not clear yesterday how he managed to make his way to France unnoticed by security services.
Cazeneuve called on Europe to act more forcefully against terrorism, saying the continent has to move “quickly and strongly”, keeping in mind terrorism victims and their families.
France started yesterday to legislate a raft of measures.
Parliament gave its approval to a package of new laws that paves the way for the country’s state of emergency to be extended by three months, until late February, and for actions against terror suspects to be stepped up. The measures will now go to the Senate for approval.
Yesterday, the Belgian government also decided on a series of new measures, including a reinforcement of police controls at its borders, the deployment of 520 soldiers, and detention for foreign fighters as soon as they return to Belgium.
Valls warned that terrorists could be ready to attempt anything, including using chemical or biological weapons.
“Today, nothing can be excluded,” he told the French parliament. “I say this of course with all the caution required, but we know it and we have it in mind. There can also be the risk of chemical or biological weapons.”
At least one suspect still remains at large. A manhunt is under way for Salah Abdeslam, a 26-year-old French resident of Belgium, who is suspected of having been part of a commando in the attacks and a friend of Abaaoud.
The Belgian newspaper De Standaard reported that police are also searching for a man suspected of having provided explosives and detonators to the attackers, identified as Mohamed K.
Belgian police yesterday carried out a series of searches, six of them linked to an old case involving Paris suicide bomber Bilal Hafdi and three of them linked to the investigation on the attacks in the French capital, prosecutors said in a statement.
Seven people were taken into custody for further interrogation during the six Hafdi-related searches, while two people were arrested during the other three operations. Further information on their identities was not immediately available. – ANA