French prosecutors have confirmed that 27-year-old Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the extremist that is accused of being the mastermind behind the recent Paris terror attacks, was among those killed during the Wednesday morning raid on an apartment in Saint-Denis.
Forensic experts combed through the aftermath of the seven-hour gun battle for DNA and fingerprint evidence to get the evidence after two terrorists were “blown to bits” and seven others surrendered.
During the siege and storming of the apartment, French officials say over 5,000 rounds of ammunition and multiple grenades were expended as the commandos decisively stormed in and killed two of the suspected terrorists.
One of the dead, a women officials identified as Hasna Aitboulahcen, was the cousin of Abaaoud and blew herself up with a suicide vest after French forces opened fire.
The second dead suspect, Abaaoud, was killed while desperately holed up and cowering in the apartment.
Police launched the operation after receiving information from tapped phone calls, surveillance and tipoffs suggesting that Abaaoud was hiding in an apartment in Paris’ Saint-Denis neighborhood.
Residents awoke to gunfire and grenade explosions as a SWAT team swooped in and “neutralized” what Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins called a “new team of terrorists” that appeared ready for a new attack.
The site of Wednesday’s raid is not far from the Stade de France soccer stadium; three suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the stadium during an international soccer game as part of the attacks last Friday that left 129 people dead and hundreds wounded.
Five police were wounded and a SWAT team dog was killed in the intense gunbattle during which the third floor of the apartment building collapsed.
Residents described hunkering down in fear.
“We tried to stop our children hearing the noise,” said Farah Appane, who lives about 80 yards (meters) from where the raid took place. “My 19-month-old was crying. Our 8-year-old said ‘What is it? Are there more attacks?'”
She said she could hear gunfire on and off for over an hour, followed by “one really huge boom.”
The head of one of the special forces units that took part in the raid, Jean-Michel Fauverge, said police used drones and robots equipped with cameras in an attempt to see what was going on inside during the raid but there was too much debris.
When they entered the building they found a body that had fallen from the third floor to the second, he told the French newspaper Le Figaro.
“The corpse was mutilated, probably from grenades and he wasn’t recognizable,” Fauverge said. “Other people were in the stairwell, two men hiding under blankets and whatever they could find. We arrested them.”
Molins said five men were taken into custody in the apartment building, including two who were pulled from the rubble. A woman and two other men, including the man whose apartment was used as the cell’s hideout, were arrested on a nearby street.
Investigators have identified Abaaoud, a Belgian of Moroccan descent, as the chief architect of the attacks Friday against the soccer stadium, a crowded concert hall and popular night spots in a trendy Paris neighborhood.
A U.S. official briefed on intelligence matters said Abaaoud was a key figure in an Islamic State external operations cell that U.S. intelligence agencies have been tracking for months.
Abaaoud is believed to have escaped to Syria after a January police raid in Belgium, but he has bragged in Islamic State propaganda of his ability to move back and forth between Europe and Syria undetected.
Speaking after the seven-hour siege ended, French President Francois Hollande praised the bravery of the security services and said that France was “at war” with the Islamic State group, which has claimed responsibility for the attacks. He called for an international coalition to destroy the group, which controls territory in Syria and Iraq.
French authorities have said seven attackers were killed Friday — six who blew themselves up and one who was killed by police. Abdeslam got away, as well as possibly another, so far unidentified, assailant, officials said.
Molins said Wednesday that investigators found a cell phone in a garbage can outside the Bataclan concert hall where 89 of the victims of Friday’s carnage died. It contained a text message sent about 20 minutes after the massacre began. “We’re off, it’s started,” it read.
French authorities declared a state of emergency after the attacks, and security forces have conducted 414 raids, making 60 arrests and seizing 75 weapons, including 11 military-style firearms, the Interior Ministry said. Parliament is expected to vote by the end of the week to extend the state of emergency for three months.
The Associated Press contributed to this story
Good Sending This Sorry Muslim Islam Idiot To Hell Fire…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQpvA9_KxUo
we need to stop taking prisoners and execute the slimy rag heads on the spot
Great job France keep up the good work , if you can hold on until trump 16 gets in the White House we will be by your side in destroying this cancer
yep me too… when trump takes the w.h. then you won’t have to worry about it…but just in case keep taking care of them yourself till we get this muslim,ilegal immigrant ,queer,idiot out of the w.h. and then will help a lot more
If we the people don’t do any thing to eliminate once and for all this nightmare, lets star a petition through out the internet to get this criminal out of the W.H. Change.org is a great place to begin.
Maybe we should send Obama to France to learn how to take control.
I’m glad they got him but it is a little like closing the barn door after the horses are gone. It doesn’t help the poor people who were slaughtered in Paris and other places. Until ISIS is completely destroyed we must assume all military age men from that area are jihadists and contain them until it is proven they are not terrorists. After Japan attacked us at Pearl Harbor many Japanese people here were arrested and confined because we couldn’t be sure they weren’t working for our enemy. The US didn’t kill them, they just kept them contained until the war was over. Was it unfair? Maybe but it was a step toward protecting the rest of the citizens. Do they whine about it now? Yes but they did the same thing to foreigners in Japan. It was war and war is hell.
thank you France, maybe our president will learn from you, how to take care of the citizens
Nice going France I wish our so called president will learn from you!
I agree with Melody. Obama is a fool.
Good job, Paris police!
Satan welcomed two more people to hell. This murderer now knows that 72 virgins were not awaiting his arrival in “paradise” so he could commit adultery with them for eternity. Instead he will burn forever and ever along with confetti girl (the woman who blew herself up) and every other terrorist who believed the same lie. I had hoped he would be caught alive so he could be tortured in a prison for the rest of his life. It looks like his torture will come from a much worse source.
From the very begaining Obama’s sympetthetic atitude towards anything muslum and his statement that if push came to shove he would stand with the muslums causes me to question the sanity of the ones that voted for him ,especially those who voted for him the second time
There is a practice in Israel in knocking down the homes of the family of a suicide bomber. Why don’t they do the same for these terrorists?! Once they know that their families will suffer the consequences of their actions they might think twice about committing these atrocities or even then they might not, but they will know that their actions will have repercussions in their family’s lives,affecting their mom,dad,siblings,whomever are still alive and might matter to these extremists. Find this guys family and all they others that they can identify and knock down all their relatives homes as an example that we as a civil society will not put up with any acts of terrorism anywhere at anytime. Every home of every relative! Maybe that will send a message to these monsters among us. We all hate to see innocent people being slaughtered for a religious war that can not be won by these exemists because they want to make a point and try to place fear into normal people just trying to live fruitful lives! The same should go for serial killer’s family homes. Maybe that would save some lives if given a second thought about what will happen to their loved ones no matter what their life might be like whether they are thrown into prison for their natural life or are given a death sentence. All governments worldwide should adopt this strategy to make those that want to be bad think for a moment about what will happen to the rest of family members that they love still in society! Just a thought.
Hold on till Cruz takes a he oath of office and we will be with you!
The oath
Glad to see the French blew away that piece of garbage now he can join his friends in HELL
and yet the fool Hollande is going to take more terrorists in? He is an idiot. I will say that to his face. He has an infestation, Perhaps the other party needs to step in and do the final dealing. I would engage in Musliim genocide. That they understand. People like Hollande CREATED the problem, someone like the opposition party is going to have to resolve it. Liberal are dangerous to the health of France AND the USA. they need removal by any means necessary.
i have no words that are strong enough for this kind iof people (if you can use that word, for them)
.It’s a pitty that the french guvernement took action so late, and didn’t eough to prevent the “ordures” to act and enable to do their injuman action.
Their death wasn’t painfull enough and not proportional to the sufferance they caused. A.R.
Sub-human?
i have no words that are strong enough for this kind iof people (if you can use that word, for them)
.It’s a pitty that the french guvernement took action so late, and didn’t eough to prevent the “ordures” to act and enable to do their injuman action.
Their death wasn’t painfull enough and not proportional to the sufferance they caused. A.R.
P.S. YOU ARE a terrible personality .In this sad event , you are capable to make the written remark. i do not appreciate in the present as well in the past, your intervention is written for everyone to see and decide the decency of it
i did not found the dupplication in my comment as you mention it. (Duplicate comment detected; it looks as though you’ve already said that!).
you have courage ,to print my critic of your remark.
it’sa bad sign A.R.
you have courage ,to print my critic of your remark.
it’sa bad sign A.R.
you have courage ,to print my critic of your remark.
it’sa bad sign A.R.
you have courage ,to print my critic of your remark.
it’sa bad sign A.R.
great job! that’s the only way a response to their barbarism should be. fight fire with more fire and they will respect us! my tip is, the french government should be wary because 99.99% sure, that brother of the slain mastermind will follow suit. monitor him and the others before he can cause harm again.