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Abdelhamid Abaaoud named as alleged mastermind of Paris terror attacks Abdelhamid Abaaoud named as alleged mastermind of Paris terror attacks
(about 1 hour later)
A French police official has named the alleged mastermind of a deadly string of suicide bombings and shootings in Paris as known Belgian extremist Abdelhamid Abaaoud. French intelligence officials have named the alleged mastermind of a deadly string of suicide bombings and shootings in Paris as Belgian extremist Abdelhamid Abaaoud, after French police made more than 20 arrests and seized arms and ammunition in a series of anti-terror raids across the country.
As evidence mounted of a major international terror operation, run from Syria and carried out by a sleeper cell based in Belgium, the official told AP that Abaaoud was the man behind the plot.
Abaaoud’s name is linked to one of the Paris suicide bombers who blew himself up in the attacks on Friday, and is also suspected of involvement in a narrowly averted attack on a Thalys high-speed Amsterdam-Brussels train in August.
The development came after police carried out at least 150 early-morning raids around France and French jets launched “massive” overnight airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Syria.
Prosecutors have also named two more of the seven suicide bombers. One, who blew himself up in the packed Bataclan concert hall, was identified as Samy Amimour, 28, a French national who was the subject of an international arrest warrant.
Related: Paris terror attacks: Abdelhamid Abaaoud 'identified as alleged mastermind' – liveRelated: Paris terror attacks: Abdelhamid Abaaoud 'identified as alleged mastermind' – live
Another attacker, who detonated his explosive vest outside the Stade de France stadium, was carrying a Syrian passport in the name of Ahmad Al Mohammad, aged 25, from Idlib. His fingerprints matched those of someone who entered Europe through the Greek island of Leros in October, the prosecutors said. As details emerged of an elaborate international terror operation run from Syria and carried out by a sleeper cell based in Belgium, officials told French media Abaaoud, seen as one of Islamic State’s most active operatives, was “investigators’ best bet” as the main organiser of the attacks, which killed at least 129 people on Friday.
A shocked nation has returned to work after a weekend that witnessed the bloodiest attack on French soil since the second world war. President François Hollande – who called the attacks “an act of war” that must be countered “mercilessly” – was due to make a historic address to both houses of the French parliament at Versailles. A minute’s silence was also observed around the country at midday. Originally from the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek, home to several other members of the militant Islamist cell that carried out the attacks on the Stade de France, the packed Bataclan concert hall and a string of crowded bars and restaurants, Abaaoud is suspected of involvement in a narrowly averted attack on a Thalys high-speed Amsterdam-Brussels train in August.
The French prime minister, Manuel Valls, said several hundred police carried out more than 150 dawn raids across France. Most were described as “preventative” anti-terroroperations under the nationwide state of emergency declared in France since the attacks. He is also said to have carried out several armed robberies with one of the three French brothers alleged to have been involved in Friday’s attacks. A French jihadi arrested after returning from Syria this summer reportedly told police Abaaoud had told him to attack a concert hall.
Searches in the north-eastern suburb of Bobigny were directly linked to the Paris attacks, French media said. In Lyon, five people were arrested in 13 separate raids during which police seized a “war arsenal” of weapons including a rocket launcher, several pistols and a Kalashnikov automatic assault rifle. The development came as the French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said police had searched 168 addresses in dawn raids across France, taking 23 people into custody and placing 104 more under house arrest.
“It’s just a start, these operations are going to continue,” Cazeneuve said. “The response of the Republic will be huge and total. He who targets the Republic will find the Republic will catch him, will be implacable.”
Related: Suspected Paris attacks mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud – what we knowRelated: Suspected Paris attacks mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud – what we know
At least three more people were detained in a string of raids in Toulouse, while 15 sites were searched in Grenoble where several weapons were seized and half a dozen more people taken into custody. Prosecutors also named two more of the seven suicide bombers. One, among the three who blew themselves up at the Bataclan, where 89 people died, was identified as Samy Amimour, 28, a French national who was the subject of an international arrest warrant.
Further raids took place in Jeumont, near the border with Belgium, Strasbourg, Marseille and Roubaix, a suburb of Lille in northern France. Valls said there was a real risk of more terror attacks to come. Another, who detonated his explosive vest outside the Stade de France stadium, was carrying a Syrian passport in the name of Ahmad Almohammad, aged 25, from Idlib. His fingerprints matched those of someone who entered Europe through the Greek island of Leros in October, prosecutors said.
“We know that operations were being prepared, and are still being prepared, not only against France but other European countries too,” the prime minister said. “France will live with the threat of new attacks for a long time to come.” As a shocked nation returned to work after the bloodiest attack on French soil since the second world war, President François Hollande joined a crowd of students from the Sorbonne university in Paris for a minute’s sombre silence at midday, observed by thousands at similar gatherings around the country.
On Sunday night France launched its biggest airstrike on Syria to date, targeting the Islamic State’s de facto capital, Raqqa, after the group claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks on the stadium, concert hall and a string of cafes and restaurants.the defence ministry said. More than 350 people were injured in the attacks, Europe’s deadliest since the 2004 Madrid train bombings, with 39 still critical, officials said. Large crowds gathered in central Paris, including at the Place de la République, close to where several of the shootings took place. Many schools and companies around the country also held a minute’s silence, while MPs sang the Marseillaise national anthem.
Hollande, who called the attacks “an act of war” that must be countered “mercilessly”, is due to make a historic address at Versailles to the combined houses of the French parliament later on Monday.
The raids were mostly described as “preventative” anti-terroroperations under the nationwide state of emergency declared in France since the attacks. In Lyon, police seized a “war arsenal” of weapons including a rocket launcher, pistols and a Kalashnikov.
Further raids took place in Toulouse, Grenoble, Jeumont – near the border with Belgium – Strasbourg, Marseille and the Lille suburb of Roubaix, as well as in the north-east Paris suburb of Bobigny – the only operation “directly linked” to Friday’s attacks, police said.
The prime minister, Manuel Valls, said there was a real risk of more terror attacks to come. “We know that operations were being prepared, and are still being prepared, not only against France but other European countries too,” Valls said. “France will live with the threat of new attacks for a long time to come.”
The raids followed France’s biggest airstrike on Syria to date on Sunday night, targeting the Islamic State’s de facto capital, Raqqa, after the group’s claim of responsibility for the Paris carnage.
Twelve planes including 10 fighter jets were launched from the United Arab Emirates and Jordan and 20 bombs dropped on a command centre, a recruitment centre for jihadis, a munitions depot, and a training camp for fighters, the defence ministry said. Reports from inside Raqqa suggest the targets were known Isis strongholds, including an army base to the north of the city under Isis control since 2014.Twelve planes including 10 fighter jets were launched from the United Arab Emirates and Jordan and 20 bombs dropped on a command centre, a recruitment centre for jihadis, a munitions depot, and a training camp for fighters, the defence ministry said. Reports from inside Raqqa suggest the targets were known Isis strongholds, including an army base to the north of the city under Isis control since 2014.
The French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said the strikes were a direct retaliation for the Paris attacks, which he said were organised from within Syria, with a cell in Belgium. “We are facing a new reality, one of acts of war organised by barbarians from inside Syria,” Cazeneuve said. It also emerged on Sunday that Iraqi intelligence warned the day before the Paris onslaught of imminent “bombings or assassinations or hostage taking in the coming days”. The French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said the strikes were a direct retaliation for the Paris attacks, which he said were organised from within Syria, with a cell in Belgium. “We are facing a new reality, one of acts of war organised by barbarians from inside Syria,” Cazeneuve said.
French security officials said France received such warnings “all the time” and “every day”. France’s foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, said at a G20 summit in Turkey that the country had the “legitimacy” to take action against Islamic State, adding that France had to be “present and active” following the attacks .
But Iraqi intelligence officials told the Associated Press that they had warned France about specific details, including the allegation that the attackers were trained for this operation and had been sent from Raqqa back to France, where they met a sleeper cell that helped them carry out their plan. Related: Paris attack suspects: what do we know about them?
French and Belgian security forces mounted a cross-border manhunt for 26-year old Salah Abdeslam, one of three French brothers living in Belgium alleged to have been involved in the attacks, which killed 129 people and left 352 injured, 99 critically. An unverified report by broadcaster RTL said he had been arrested during an operation in Brussels, thought this contradicted by another broacaster, RTBF. A senior Turkish official said authorities had twice flagged one of the suicide bombers – 29-year-old French national Omar Ismaïl Mostefai – to their French counterparts, but only received an information request after the Paris attacks. The officials said that Mostefai was first named as a possible “terror suspect” in October 2014.
Salah Abdeslam rented a Belgian-registered VW Polo that was parked outside the Bataclan concert hall where 89 people died. Along with two other men, he pulled over for a routine check near the French-Belgian border early on Saturday morning, but the three were released because their names were not yet on any wanted list. It emerged on Sunday that Iraqi intelligence had warned French intelligence agencies the day before the Paris onslaught of imminent “bombings or assassinations or hostage taking in the coming days”.
One of his brothers, identified as Ibrahim Abdeslam, 31, blew himself up outside the Bataclan. The third Abdeslam brother, as yet unnamed by authorities, has been arrested in Belgium. French security officials said such warnings were frequent, but Iraqi intelligence operatives said they had warned France of specific details – including that the attackers were trained for this operation and had been sent from Raqqa to France, where they were to meet a sleeper cell to help carry out the plan.
In all, 24 people were allegedly involved: 19 attackers and five others in charge of logistics and planning, the Iraqi report claimed. Those details have not so far been corroborated by French or western intelligence agencies. A cross-border manhunt continued for 26-year old Salah Abdeslam, one of the three French brothers living in Belgium alleged to have been involved in the attacks. Claims that he had been arrested on Monday in major operation by Belgian police were later denied.
The Washington Post named another suicide bomber as Bilal Hadfi, whose nationality was not known but who was thought to have fought in Syria. Salah Abdeslam was the man who rented a Belgian-registered VW Polo, parked outside the Bataclan concert hall. Along with two others, he was pulled up for a routine check near the French-Belgian border early on Saturday morning, hours after the attacks. But the men were released because none of their names were on wanted list.
The first of the killers to be formally identified was named on Sunday as Omar Ismaïl Mostefai, 29, from Courcouronnes, south of Paris. Seven of his relatives, including his father and brother, still were being questioned by French police. One of his brothers, identified as Brahim Abdeslam, 31, blew himself up outside the Bataclan. The third Abdeslam brother, Mohamed, was arrested in Belgium and later released without charge, alongside five other detained people.
Most of the Belgian arrests were made in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek, a hotbed of radicalism in the country that proportionately has supplied more fighters for Isis than any other in Europe. The district has harboured several other Islamist attackers, including Ayoub el-Khazzani, 25, whose attack on a high-speed Thalys train in August was thwarted by off-duty US soldiers, and Mehdi Nemmouche, who killed three people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in 2014. In all, 24 people were allegedly involved: 19 attackers and five others in charge of logistics and planning, the uncorroborated Iraqi report claimed.
In Germany, authorities were looking into a possible link to a 51-year-old Montenegrin man recently stopped with a car full of arms and explosives. The Bavarian interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, said officers found automatic weapons, dynamite, hand grenades and ammunition in the man’s car, along with a mobile phone and car GPS system indicating he was en route to Paris. The Washington Post named another suicide bomber as Bilal Hadfi, whose nationality was not known but who was thought to have fought in Syria. Seven of Mostefai’s relatives, including his father and brother, were questioned by French police.
The EU said it would hold a meeting of its interior and justice ministers next Friday to assess the impact of the Paris attacks. Cazeneuve asked for the meeting, saying “our battle against terrorism must be, more than ever, steadfast”, and must be reinforced at the European level. France urged its European partners to move swiftly to improve intelligence sharing, fight arms trafficking and terror financing, and strengthen border security in the wake of the attacks.
“Clearly, decisions must be taken,” the senior official in charge of European affairs, Harlem Desir, said ahead of talks with European Union foreign ministers. “France was attacked, but all of Europe was hit. We were hit together, and we will respond together.”