Suspected Paris leader killed
AAP
French prosecutors have confirmed one of three bodies found after a raid in Paris was that of the Islamic State jihadist suspected of organising terror attacks in the city.
Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 28-year-old Belgian of Moroccan origin, died in Wednesday’s assault by elite police units on an apartment in Paris’ northern suburb of Saint-Denis.
The confirmation came as French lawmakers debated extending an extraordinary package of security measures for three months.
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Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said Abaaoud’s identity was confirmed from fingerprints. He said it was not clear whether Abaaoud had detonated a suicide vest, or died from gunshot wounds.
“It was his body we discovered in the building, riddled with impacts,” a statement from the Paris prosecutor said, a day after the pre-dawn raid.
The backyard of the 8 rue du Corbillon building in Saint-Denis, one day after special police raided an apartment with suspected terrorists, in northern Paris, France. Photo: AAP
More than 100 French officers held the apartment under siege for seven hours.
Eight suspects were arrested and three were found dead at the end of the assault, the second body was believed to be that of 26-year-old Hasna Aitboulahcen. Reports suggest she was Abaaoud’s cousin.
She was heard yelling: “Help me, help me”, at one point in the siege, in an apparent attempt to lure circling police to the building.
A third body was found later.
A witness of the siege, Christian, told newspaper Le Parisien police had asked Aitboulahcen to identify herself and move to the window with her hands in the air about 6am.
“She held her hands up but didn’t reveal her face. She withdrew her hands out of sight, and then put them up again several times,” he said.
Her explosive vest was detonated soon after, shattering many of the windows along the street.
“Lots of objects from the apartment were thrown into the street, pieces of human flesh as well,” the witness added.
Key suspect, Salah Abdeslam, believe to have rented a car used in the Paris attacks, remains unaccounted for.
The attacks saw a state of emergency declared by President Francois Hollande, that was extended by lawmakers for the next three months.
“Terrorism hit France not because of what it is doing in Iraq and Syria … but for what it is,” Prime Minister Manuel Valls told the lower house of Parliament, CBS News reported.
“We know that there could also be a risk of chemical or biological weapons.”
Abaaoud on police radar for previous attack attempts
The 28-year-old Abaaoud was thought to have been in Syria – where he had boasted of planning attacks on the West – and his presence in France raised troubling questions about a breakdown in intelligence and border security.
A pedestrian walks past a mural which reads ‘Pray for Paris’ on Place de la Republique. Photo: AAP
Confirmation that such a high-profile figure from the Islamic State group had managed to slip undetected into France prompted a sharp response from Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who demanded Europe step up its response to the terror threat.
Abaaoud was involved in four out of six attack plots foiled in France this year, he said, but Paris had received “no information” from other European countries about his arrival on the continent.
“Everyone must understand it is urgent that Europe wakes up, organises itself and defends itself against the terrorist threat,” he told reporters on Thursday.
The Islamist was the subject of an international arrest warrant issued by Belgium – where a court had in July sentenced him in absentia to 20 years in prison for recruiting jihadists for Syria.
It was only on November 16, three days after the Paris bloodbath, that “intelligence services of a country outside Europe indicated they had knowledge of his presence in Greece,” the minister said, without specifying which country.
Abaaoud was linked to a foiled April plot to attack a church near Paris, Cazeneuve said, and police were also probing possible links to a thwarted assault on a high-speed train from Amsterdam to Paris in August.
As the Paris probe widened to countries across Europe, Belgian police arrested nine people in Brussels, seven of them in raids linked to a suicide bomber who blew himself up outside the French national stadium last Friday, prosecutors said.
Italy was also hunting five suspects after an FBI tip-off about possible jihadist attacks on landmark sites including St Peter’s Cathedral in the Vatican, the foreign minister said.
– with AAP