Paris on edge as questions arise about suspect’s fate
FRANCE: Authorities can’t confirm death of alleged terrorist leader
ST.-DENIS, France — The assault began before dawn Wednesday at a decrepit squat in a close suburb of Paris when scores of French police officers stormed a thirdfloor apartment in search of their elusive quarry: Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian suspected of organizing last week’s deadly attacks by the Islamic State in Paris.
To get through a reinforced door, the police had to set explosives, giving the people inside time to prepare. A furious firefight ensued, with the police unleashing 5,000 rounds over the next hour and employing snipers and grenades. A female suicide bomber exploded her vest, collapsing the floor.
When it was all over, the police had swept eight people into custody and found at least two mangled bodies. Abaaoud had not been taken alive, the authorities said — and it was not clear whether one of the bodies was his.
“I am not able to give you the definitive number and identities of the people who were killed,” the Paris prosecutor,
François Molins, said, adding that neither Abaaoud nor Salah Abdeslam, another suspected Paris attacker who has been on the loose, was among those arrested.
The Washington Post reported that two senior European officials from different countries, who have followed the case closely and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said they had received reports from French authorities that Abaaoud was identified as one of those killed in the raid.
Averting another tragedy
The day of further violence left Paris on edge once again and much of the world transfixed as the manhunt for Abaaoud and his accomplices played out. Evening brought only uncertainty about whether the threat had been eradicated or whether Abaaoud, who has boasted of eluding capture, remained at large.
Adding to the confusion was the identity of the female suicide bomber, believed to be the first woman affiliated with the Islamic State to have blown herself up, other than those with Boko Haram, the militant Islamist group in Nigeria. Two French intelligence officials briefed on the investigation said she was believed to be a cousin of Abaaoud, Hasna Aitboulahcen, 26, who worked for a nearby company.
Molins suggested that the raid might have averted another terrorist attack, given the determination and organization shown by the group and the extent of its weaponry.
“This commando group was ready to act,” he said.
The breakthrough appeared to have come with a tip on Monday night: Abaaoud, an Islamic State militant linked to a series of previous attacks, was not in Syria, as some intelligence officials had thought, or his native Belgium. If the tip was to be believed, he was in France.
The authorities pored over telephone and banking records, Molins said. One clue led to another, until the authorities concluded that it was likely that Abaaoud was holed up in St.Denis, the suburb on the northern edge of Paris where the attacks began last Friday night at 9:20 p.m. with a suicide explosion at the nearby national soccer stadium.
At 4:20 a.m. Paris time on Wednesday, police assault teams stormed the three-story building on the Rue du Corbillon, which local officials and neighbors described as a druginfested and dangerous street that has many squatters.
Backed by truckloads of soldiers, 110 officers from two special police units cordoned off an area near the Place Jean Jaurès, a main square in the medieval heart of the city.
Frightened witnesses
Djamila Khaldi, a 54-yearold cashier who lives in the area, was preparing to take her daughter to the airport when the gunfire erupted.
Khaldi said she was not surprised the police had tracked the suspects to the neighborhood. She said a friend of hers believed she had seen Abdeslam on Monday.
“She was terrified, and she looked at another woman knowing that she recognized him too,” Khaldi said. “They did not dare to go to the police.”
The police conducted a simultaneous raid on the nearby Boulevard Carnot, the home of someone identified as having been in contact with the people at the Rue du Corbillon. The apartment was empty and no weapons were found there, but a man and a woman outside the apartment were detained.
Before he was handcuffed and led away by the police, the man told Agence France-Presse that he had lent the apartment to the men as a favor to a friend: “I said that there was no mattress, they told me, ‘It’s not a problem.’ They just wanted water and to pray.”
St.-Denis, a city of 118,000, is known for its melting-pot population and large Muslim community, as well as a Gothic basilica where many French monarchs are buried.
Fighting back
As the raids were being carried out, the police shouted at pedestrians to get off the street or seek cover; officers even broke through the door of a small church, St.-Denys de l’Estrée, chasing down what turned out to be a false alarm.
At 11:47 a.m., after more than seven hours, government spokesman Stéphane Le Foll declared that the operation was over. Five police officers were slightly wounded, and a 7-year-old police dog, a Malinois named Diesel, was killed.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Justice Minister Christiane Taubira had joined President François Hollande and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve at the Élysée Palace to monitor the operation.
The raid was the most spectacular of an aggressive counterterrorism campaign the French government has been conducting since Friday night. Officials said Wednesday that they had identified all 129 of the people who were killed Friday.
Cazeneuve said Wednesday that the police had conducted 414 raids across the country during the past three nights.
Sixty people have been arrested and detained, and 75 weapons seized, including 11 heavy weapons, 33 long firearms and 31 handguns, the statement said. An additional 118 people were put under house arrest.