Paris shootings - Many dead in multiple attacks

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Were the Paris killers on DRUGS? Footage from inside hotel room where they plotted mass murder shows SYRINGES lying among empty pizza boxes and chocolate

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...nt-nice-proper-dressed-men-didn-t-beards.html

 

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'If you don't like this country, why the f*** did you come here?' Muslim man's impassioned speech decrying ISIS for trying to impose Sharia law on the West takes social media by storm

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...terrorists-trying-impose-Sharia-law-West.html

 

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Harrowing footage of Paris terror attack aftermath shows terrified survivors cowering among shattered glass as explosions and gunfire can be heard around them

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ered-glass-explosions-gunfire-heard-them.html

 

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Paris police raid: two terror suspects dead, seven in custody after shoot-out and suicide bomb explosion

Gunfire rocks Saint Denis suburb as special armed response unit hunt for 'mastermind' of Friday's brutal attacks

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 18 November, 2015, 2:21pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 19 November, 2015, 2:22am

Agencies and Ben Westcott

Soldiers move into position in St Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, during yesterday's counter-terror operation that led to the arrests of seven people. Photos: AP

A Paris siege to catch the mastermind of Friday’s terrorist attacks has finished more than seven hours after it began, leaving two people dead and seven more in custody.

A female suicide bomber who blew herself up was among the casualties of a dawn raid in the northern Paris suburb of Saint Denis, which began just after 4am.

Gunfire and explosions rocked the Saint Denis area in the north of the capital near the Stade de France stadium from before dawn as terrified residents were evacuated or told to stay in their homes.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said telephone surveillance and witness reports "led us to believe" that Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected mastermind of Friday's series of attacks in Paris that killed 129 people, had been in the apartment.

However, Molins added it was too early to say if he was among those arrested or killed.

Abaaoud is an Islamic State fighter who was previously thought to be in Syria after fleeing raids in his native Belgium earlier this year.

Police officers take up positions in Saint Denis, a northern suburb of Paris. Photo: AP

Law enforcement authorities were joined by dozens of French military shortly after fighting broke out.

Two people were reported killed, including the female suicide bomber, and seven arrested, one of whom was a landlord who lent his apartment to two other suspects who have been detained by police.

“I was asked to do a favour... I didn’t know they were terrorists,” the man told AFP.

A seven-year-old police dog, named Diesel, was also killed during the operation according to French authorities.

Residents of the Paris suburb, some of whom were evacuated in their underwear, said they had been caught in a terrifying exchange of fire. Hayat, 26, had been leaving a friend's apartment where she had spent the night when the shots erupted.

"I heard gunfire," she said. "I could have been hit by a bullet. I never thought terrorists could have hid here."

Members of special French RAID forces with a police dog and French riot police (CRS) secure the area during an operation in Saint-Denis. Photo: Reuters

The raid came after footage from the scene of one of Paris attacks revealed a ninth suspect may have taken part. It is known that seven were killed in the carnage on Friday, most after detonating suicide belts.

It was not clear if the ninth man was one of two suspected accomplices detained in Belgium or was still on the run, potentially with 26-year-old fugitive Frenchman Salah Abdeslam who took part in the attacks with his suicide-bomber brother Brahim.

Firemen said they had joined the operation against “an armed group holed up in an apartment” at 4.31am, without giving any further details.

The area was still closed down on Wednesday morning as police cleaned the area, with French authorities warding off pedestrians who came too close to the operation.

French police stop and search a local resident yesterday. Photos: Reuters

A special armed response unit took part in the raid, which comes as nations across Europe put police and the public on high alert after footage from the scene of one of Friday's attacks revealed a ninth suspect may have taken part.

All transport in the area was halted throughout the morning and schools in Saint Denis will be closed on Wednesday, according to authorities.

Police also carried out multiple raids in southwest France. The operations were part of an anti-terrorism strategy but not directly linked to the Paris attacks, an investigator said.

French President Francois Hollande was to hold discussions yesterday on extending to three months the state of emergency declared after the worst attacks in French history. Lawmakers will vote on the proposal today and tomorrow.

Authorities told residents to stay inside during a large police operation. Photo: AP

As police stepped up the hunt for the fugitives, French and Russian jets pounded Islamic State targets in the group's Syrian stronghold of Raqa for a third consecutive day.

The French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle steamed from the southern port of Toulon on yesterday, heading for the eastern Mediterranean to participate in intensified airstrikes against Islamic State targets.

In a sign of the nervousness gripping Europe after Friday's carnage, a football match between Germany and the Netherlands was cancelled Tuesday and the crowd evacuated after police acted on a “serious” bomb threat.

As police stepped up the hunt for the fugitives, French and Russian jets pounded IS targets in the group's Syrian stronghold of Raqqa for a third consecutive day.

Police sources said several unidentified men were still holed up in an apartment as the operation continued. Photo: Reuters

France and Russia have vowed merciless retaliation for the Paris attacks and last month's bombing of a Russian airliner, also claimed by the Islamic State group, which have galvanised international resolve to destroy the jihadists and end Syria's more than four-year civil war.

“It's necessary to establish direct contact with the French and work with them as allies,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said as France prepared to send an aircraft carrier to the eastern Mediterranean.

Hollande will meet Putin in Moscow on November 26, two days after seeing US President Barack Obama in Washington.

Police have issued the photograph of one of the three men who blew themselves up outside the Stade de France, who investigators have established entered Europe through Greece, as hundreds of thousands of refugees have done this year.

He was found with a Syrian passport near his body, but investigators have not confirmed that he was the man in the document and are appealing for anyone who recognises him to come forward.

 

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Paris terror plot mastermind 'is DEAD': Police remove two bodies from apartment after French commandos 'kill ISIS leader' during hour-long gun battle in which FIVE THOUSAND rounds were fired

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ks-Paris-suburb-anti-terrorist-operation.html

 

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Hero police dog walks to her death: Heartbreaking photo shows Diesel just moments before she was killed by woman suicide bomber in Paris siege

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...urs-killed-suicide-bomber-sent-apartment.html

 

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'We are in the sights of ISIS': German spy chief issues chilling warning after football match is abandoned but says country should look to Britain as an example and not be cowed into cancelling events

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ch-Holland-cancelled-90-minutes-kick-off.html

 

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New Paris terror team 'neutralised'

By Emmanuel Jarry and Antony Paone
November 19, 2015, 8:51 am

A woman suicide bomber blew herself up in a police raid that sources said had foiled a jihadi plan to hit Paris's business district, days after attacks that killed 129 across the French capital.

Police on Wednesday stormed an apartment in the Paris suburb of St. Denis in a hunt for Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian Islamist militant accused of masterminding the bombings and shootings, but more than 15 hours later it was still unclear if they had found him.

Heavily armed officers entered the building before dawn, triggering a massive firefight and multiple explosions. Eight people were arrested and forensic scientists were working to confirm if two or three militants died in the violence.

"A new team of terrorists has been neutralised," Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins told reporters, saying police had fired 5000 rounds of munitions into the apartment, which was left shredded by the assault, its windows blown out and the facade riddled with bullet impacts.

"This commando could have become operational," Molins said.

A source close to the investigation said the dead woman might have been Abaaoud's cousin, while the Washington Post quoted senior intelligence officials as saying Abaaoud himself had died in the shoot out.

Molins said none of the bodies had been identified, adding only that Abaaoud was not amongst those detained.

Police were led to the apartment following a tip off that the 28-year-old Belgian, previously thought to have orchestrated the November 13 attacks from Syria, was actually in France.

Investigators believe the attacks - the worst atrocity in France since World War Two - were set in motion in Syria, with Islamist cells in neighbouring Belgium organising the mayhem.

Local residents spoke of their fear and panic as the shooting started in St. Denis just before 4.30am local time.

"We could see bullets flying and laser beams out of the window. There were explosions. You could feel the whole building shake," said Sabrine, a downstairs neighbour from the apartment that was raided.

She told Europe 1 radio that she heard the people above her talking to each other, running around and reloading their guns.

Five police officers and a passerby were injured in the assault. A police dog was also killed.

Islamic State, which controls swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq, has claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks, saying they were in retaliation for French air raids against their positions over the past year.

French prosecutors have identified five of the seven dead assailants from Friday - four Frenchmen and a man who was fingerprinted in Greece last month after arriving in the country via Turkey with a boatload of refugees fleeing the Syria war.

Police believe two men directly involved in the assault subsequently escaped, including Salah Abdeslam, 26, a Belgian-based Frenchman who is accused of having played a central role in both planning and executing the deadly mission.

French authorities said on Wednesday they had identified all the November 13 victims. They came from 17 different countries, many of them young people out enjoying themselves.

Empowered by a state of emergency introduced in France last Friday, police here have made hundreds of sweeps across the country over the past three days, arresting 60 suspects, putting 118 under house arrest and seizing 75 weapons.

Two police sources and a source close to the investigation told Reuters that the St. Denis cell was planning a fresh attack. "This new team was planning an attack on La Defense," one source said, referring to a high-rise neighbourhood on the outskirts of Paris that is home to top banks and businesses.

 

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Fate of Paris attacks 'mastermind' unknown after massive raid

AFP
November 19, 2015, 7:28 am

Paris (AFP) - The fate of the suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was unknown Wednesday after a massive police raid in a suburb of the city that left at least two dead, including a female suicide bomber.

Intelligence led investigators to believe the Belgian suspect was in an apartment in Saint-Denis to the north of Paris, triggering a ferocious seven-hour shootout there with police that began before dawn.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said the raid had thwarted a "team of terrorists that... could have struck".

At least two people were killed -- a woman thought to have blown herself up with a suicide vest and another body that was found riddled with bullets, the prosecutor said.

Police rained more than 5,000 rounds of ammunition on the building after terrified residents living in the area near the Stade de France stadium were evacuated.

A series of explosions rang out as the police closed in on the dwelling and one suspect was seen being dragged away, his bare buttocks exposed.

- Shattered building -

At least two bodies were found in the badly damaged building after the shootout, but their state was complicating efforts to identify them, Molins told a press conference.

The body that had sustained a number of gunshots was "not in a state that allows it to be identified", he said.

Due to the severe damage to the building, it was impossible to know how many died and who they were, the prosecutor said.

"I am not able to give you a precise number and identity of those killed. There are at least two dead and verifications will likely take longer than expected," he added.

"A new team of terrorists was neutralised and all indications are that given their arms, their organisational structure and their determination, the commando could have struck," he said.

Eight people were arrested, including two found in the rubble of the building. Salah Abdeslam, 26, suspected of taking part in the attacks in Paris with his suicide-bomber brother Brahim, was also not among those held, the prosecutor said.

Abaaoud is a 28-year-old Islamic State fighter who was previously thought to be in Syria after fleeing raids in his native Belgium earlier this year.

He is believed to have planned a number of attacks and is thought to have masterminded the gun and bomb assaults on bars and restaurants, outside the Stade de France and at the Bataclan concert hall that left 129 dead on Friday.

A key piece of the evidence in the investigation had been a mobile phone found in a bin near the Bataclan, where 89 people were killed in the worst of the bloody series of attacks.

Residents of the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis said they had been caught in a terrifying exchange of fire.

Hayat, 26, had been leaving a friend's apartment where she had spent the night when the shots erupted.

"I heard gunfire," she said. "I could have been hit by a bullet. I never thought terrorists could have hidden here."

A man arrested during the assault told AFP he had loaned his apartment to two people from Belgium.

"A friend asked me to put up two of his friends for a few days," Jawad Bendaoud said, before he was arrested.

Seven jihadists were killed or blew themselves up in Friday's attacks.

In Belgium, where some of the attackers lived, it emerged prosecutors had questioned the two Abdeslam brothers before the attacks "but they had shown no signs of being a potential threat".

Hundreds of Belgians joined a candlelight vigil in solidarity with the victims of the Paris attacks on Wednesday in Molenbeek, the troubled Brussels neighbourhood where the brothers lived.

- 'Don't give in to fear' -

The attacks in the capital were unprecedented in France, which was shaken to its core for the second time in a year after 17 people were shot dead by jihadists at Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish supermarket in January.

President Francois Hollande praised security forces for their role in the "particularly perilous" operation which he said proved France was involved in a "war against terrorism".

But he urged the nation not to "give in to fear" or excessive reactions in the wake of the attacks.

"No anti-Semitic or anti-Muslim act can be tolerated," he said.

Meanwhile, the body representing Muslims in France said it would ask all 2,500 mosques in the country to condemn "all forms of violence or terrorism" at Friday prayers.

As police stepped up the hunt for the fugitives, French and Russian jets pounded IS targets in the group's Syrian stronghold of Raqa.

A monitoring group said the air strikes had killed at least 33 jihadists in the last 72 hours.

France and Russia have vowed a merciless response for the bloodshed in Paris and last month's bombing of a Russian airliner over the Egyptian Sinai peninsula which killed 229 people and was also claimed by IS.

The aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle left France on Wednesday and is expected to reach the eastern Mediterranean by the end of the week where it will help launch intensified air strikes.

The attacks have galvanised international resolve to destroy the jihadist group and end Syria's more than four-year civil war, while potentially mending ties between Russia and France that had collapsed due to last year's Ukraine crisis.

 

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Paris attacks mastermind confirmed dead in seven-hour siege, as France warns of chemical attacks by Islamic State

France extends state of emergency to three months as Belgium carries out more raids linked to Friday’s terror attacks

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 19 November, 2015, 5:51pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 19 November, 2015, 11:38pm

Reuters, Agence France-Presse

Abdelhamid Abaaoud (left) was killed in the police raid (right) on Wednesday in Saint Denis. Photos: AFP, Reuters

The suspected mastermind of the attacks that killed 129 in Paris was among those killed in a police raid in a suburb of the French capital, the Paris prosecutor said in a statement on Thursday.

Paris attacks ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud was implicated in four thwarted French terror plots this year, a minister said on Thursday, deploring the fact that no-one had flagged his presence in Europe.

“Six attacks have been avoided or foiled by the French services since spring 2015. Abaaoud was implicated in four of them,” Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told reporters, shortly after the Islamic State jihadist's death was confirmed by French prosecutors' office.

Abaaoud, a 28-year-old Belgian militant, who had boasted of mounting attacks in Europe for the Islamic State, was accused of orchestrating Friday’s coordinated bombings and shootings in the French capital, which killed 129 people.

Police originally thought he was in Syria, but their investigations led them to a house in the Paris suburb of St. Denis and heavily armed officers stormed the building before dawn, triggering a massive firefight and multiple explosions.

“Abdelhamid Abaaoud has just been formally identified... as having been killed during the raid” in a northern Paris suburb on Wednesday, the prosecutor said in a statement.

Abaaoud was one of two people killed in the raid in Saint Denis on Wednesday. Police rained fire and grenades on the building in a seven-hour siege. The other fatality was a woman who detonated an explosives vest.

A French policeman and a forensic expert enter a building as they work on the scene in Saint Denis, a day after a raid to catch fugitives from Friday night's deadly attacks. Photo: Reuters

With the country on heightened alert for more violence, Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned on Thursday that France was at risk of a chemical or biological weapons attack, as lawmakers voted to extend a state of emergency imposed after the Paris carnage.

Prosecutor Francois Molins said the raid in Saint-Denis in northern Paris had stopped a “new team of terrorists” who were ready to launch another attack in the city.

Valls warned of the dangers still faced by France as he opened a parliamentary debate that later saw lawmakers extend an extraordinary package of security measures for three months.

“We must not rule anything out,” Valls said. “There is also the risk from chemical or biological weapons.”

He called on France’s European Union partners to urgently adopt measures to share airline passenger information.

“More than ever, it’s time for Europe to adopt the text... to guarantee the traceability of movements, including within the union. It’s a condition of our collective security,” he said.

French police will be allowed to be armed when off duty. Photo: AFP

The state of emergency will be in place for three months from November 26 after lawmakers approved the extension.

At least 129 people were killed in the shootings and suicide bombings that targeted a concert hall, bars and restaurants and the Stade de France national stadium, Europe’s second deadliest terror attack in history.

As the Paris probe widened to countries across Europe, Belgian police staged six raids in the Brussels area linked to a suicide bomber who blew himself up outside the French stadium, prosecutors said.

Italy was also looking for 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.

Under one of the measures being adopted in France, police officers will be allowed to carry weapons when they are off duty.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls gestures as he addresses French lawmakers. Photo: AFP

Officers will be allowed to use their guns in the event of an attack providing they wear a police armband to avoid “any confusion”, according to a directive.

Eight suspects were arrested in the massive Saint-Denis raid, but neither Abaaoud, the Belgian suspected of orchestrating the Paris attacks, nor another key suspect, Salah Abdeslam, were among them.

Abdeslam is thought to be one of the only surviving members of the gang. His suicide-bomber brother Brahim Abdeslam blew himself up in a cafe but did not kill anyone else.

As international efforts to fight the Islamic State group stepped up, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Russia was “sincere” in wanting to cooperate against IS in Syria.

“There is an opening, so to speak, with the Russians. We think they are sincere and we must bring together all our forces,” he told France Inter radio.

But world powers remain deeply divided over the future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has strong backing from Moscow.

US intelligence meanwhile published a report showing it warned in May that IS was capable of carrying out the kind of large-scale coordinated attacks seen in Paris.

The assessment from the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, in coordination with the FBI, specifically refers to Abaaoud as a ringleader of Belgian plotters and warned Europe was more at risk of attack than the United States.

Abaaoud was previously thought to be in Syria after fleeing raids in his native Belgium earlier this year.

IS released a new video threatening New York, and specifically Times Square, although police said there was no “current and specific” threat.

 

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Nine arrests in Brussels linked to Paris attacks

AFP
November 20, 2015, 3:11 am

Brussels (AFP) - Belgian police arrested nine people in Brussels on Thursday during raids connected to last week's deadly Paris attacks, prosecutors said.

Seven people were "taken in for further investigation" during six raids linked to French national stadium bomber Bilal Hadfi, the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement.

The other two arrests were also linked to last Friday's attacks, the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Many of the raids were in the largely immigrant area of Molenbeek, where Paris attacks ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud and two brothers linked to the attacks, Brahim and Salah Abdeslam, came from.

But there were also raids in the upscale Brussels suburbs of Uccle and Laeken.

Prosecutors said they would give more details on how long the suspects would be held on Friday.

Belgian police have carried out a series of raids since the Paris massacre in which 129 people died, with Belgium facing increasing criticism for having failed to stop the attackers.

A major operation targeting Salah Abedeslam in Molenbeek on Monday failed to find the suspect.

Two people were charged with involvement in terrorism on Monday in relation to the Paris attacks.

 

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Third body found at scene of Paris attacks police raid in St Denis

The yet unidentified person had died in the seven-hour siege alongside ‘mastermind’ Abdelhamid Abaaoud

PUBLISHED : Friday, 20 November, 2015, 11:42pm
UPDATED : Friday, 20 November, 2015, 11:48pm

The Guardian

Police forces in St Denis, a northern suburb where suspects of the Paris attacks were hiding. Photo: AP

A third body has been found in a terrorist hideout north of Paris that was the scene of a ferocious shootout with police, French officials said, as European Union ministers met for emergency talks on tightening border security.

The Paris public prosecutor said a third, as yet unidentified person had died in the seven-hour siege in Saint Denis on Wednesday alongside Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the Islamic State extremist suspected of planning the Paris attacks that left 129 people dead last Friday, and a woman thought to be his cousin, Hasna Aitboulahcen.

EU ministers meeting in Brussels were set to announce radical changes to border security after it emerged that Abaaoud, a 28-year-old Belgian national living in Syria, had been able to enter Europe and travel round the bloc seemingly at will.

“Terrorists are crossing the borders of the European Union,” the French interior minister, Bernard Cazaneuve, said at the opening of the meeting, calling on ministers to adopt urgently an EU-wide system for airline passenger information. “We can’t take any more time. This is urgent.”

Abaaoud had been linked with half a dozen terror plots in Europe and was thought to have been in Syria. But despite being the subject of European and international arrest warrants, he was able to enter Europe unnoticed and make his way to the French capital.

Police told French media on Friday they had recovered CCTV footage of Abaaoud filmed in the Paris metro at around 10pm on the night of the attacks. The jihadi was captured by two security cameras at the Croix de Chavaux station near Montreuil on line nine, close to where a Belgian-registered Seat car was later found with three Kalashnikov assault rifles inside.

The French prime minister, Manuel Valls, said on Thursday night that members of the Brussels-based cell that carried out the attacks had taken advantage of Europe’s migrant crisis to “slip in” to France.
READ MORE: How did this selfie-taking, alcohol-drinking secular young woman become Europe’s first female suicide bomber?

The EU’s 26-nation, passport-free Schengen zone would be “jeopardised” if Europe did not considerably improve border security, he added, while warning there was no such thing as zero risk. The terrorist threat, Valls said, would be “long and permanent”.

No EU intelligence agency was able to warn France that Abaaoud, who is of Moroccan origin and carries a Belgian passport, had arrived in Europe ahead of the attacks on the national stadium, a concert hall and a string of central Paris bars and restaurants.

Foreign, non-EU intelligence, based on mobile phone surveillance, indicating the Isis militant had recently been in Greece did not reach Paris until 16 November, three days after the attacks.

Abaaoud was also checked by police at Cologne-Bonn airport on his way to Istanbul in early 2014, German officials said, but was allowed to go as they had no instructions to stop him.

All five of the seven jihadis who were shot dead or blew themselves up in the Paris carnage and whose bodies have have been identified – including four Frenchmen – recently spent time in Syria, officials have said.

The fifth was a foreigner carrying a Syrian passport, who was fingerprinted in Greece last month and later claimed asylum in Serbia – sparking worries that extremists could be posing as refugees to enter Europe unnoticed.

A national memorial ceremony for those killed in the attacks will be held at Les Invalides in Paris on 27 November, two weeks to the day after the attack, it was announced on Friday. France’s Republican Guard will carry a photograph of every victim of the attacks.

The EU’s interior and justice ministers will discuss imposing tougher checks on all travellers, including EU passport holders, at the external borders of the Schengen zone, as an emergency measure.

The meeting followed an announcement by Rob Wainwright, the head of Europol, that the EU police agency’s database now contained the names of 28,000 people in the EU who needed monitoring for possible terror links, including the confirmed names of 2,000 foreign fighters who had been to Syria from EU countries.

The EU ministers are also set to discuss the creation of a new European intelligence service – a “European FBI” – and give new counter-terrorism powers to the Warsaw-based border agency Frontex.

Neither the third militant killed in Wednesday’s police onslaught nor Aitboulahcen, who blew herself up by detonating an explosive vest, have yet been formally identified because of the condition of their bodies and the dangerous state of the partly collapsed building, although police have said Aitboulahcen’s passport was found in the apartment.

Her brother said she had become radicalised only around six months ago. “She was unstable, she created her own bubble. She wasn’t looking to study religion. I have never even seen her open a Qur’an,” he said.

Abaaoud, who French officials say was implicated in four of the six planned terrorist attacks they have foiled this year, reportedly joined Isis in 2013. He was suspected of organising a terror cell in Verviers, Belgium, which was broken up in a shootout with police in January, and involvement in a thwarted attack in August on a Thalys train.

A cross-border manhunt continues for another of the supposed attackers, 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, whose brother Brahim blew himself up in the attacks. Belgian media on Friday quoted a friend as saying Salah Abdeslam was holed up in Molenbeek, the Brussels suburb to which many of the attackers, including Abaaoud, were linked.

The French parliament has voted to extend the state of emergency declared after the attacks to three months. A battery of further security measures is being prepared, including stripping French dual nationals convicted of terrorism of citizenship, placing under house arrest anyone considered a public threat, and allowing police to carry out searches without a judge’s approval.

At the United Nations in New York, meanwhile, France is pushing for what is in effect a security council declaration of war against Isis, with a resolution calling on members to “take all necessary measures” to defeat the terror group in the wake of the Paris attacks.

French officials at the UN have circulated a draft declaration calling on countries to “redouble and co-ordinate their efforts” against Isis. It is understood the resolution has been worded to encourage unity so it can be swiftly pushed forward.

 

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Father of Paris attacks ringleader wishes son was taken alive

AFP
November 21, 2015, 5:09 am

Brussels (AFP) - The father of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the alleged ringleader of the Paris attacks, said he regretted his son died in a shootout with police in France, his lawyer said on Friday.

"Omar Abaaoud regrets that his son was not taken alive," Nathalie Gallant told journalists two days after the 28-year-old was gunned down north of Paris.

"My client is extremely calm and expected that things would end badly. He only feels anger and disgust towards his son," she said.

Her client, who now lives in Morocco and suffers from "severe depression", "wishes that Abdelhamid could have faced questioning to understand how he took such a bad turn," she added.

He is also eager to hear the fate of his younger son Younes, whom Abdelhamid brought with him to Syria in January 2014 when the boy was only 13.

Until he was killed, Abdelhamid Abaaoud was one of the most wanted men in the world, suspected of plotting several foiled attacks in France and Belgium before the attacks in Paris that killed 130 people.

But Abaaoud was more of a follower than a natural leader, the jihadist's former lawyer Alexandre Chateau told RTBF.

"He was rather reserved, eager for recognition from those around him," said Chateau, who defended Abaaoud in a series of cases involving violence and petty crime starting in 2006 and before his radical turn.

The lawyer last saw his client in 2013 and until then never noticed a leaning towards radicalism besides a few details such as the fact that he had grown a beard.

"These small signs gave me the impression that he was putting his criminal life behind him," the lawyer added.

 

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Survivor struggles to come to terms with Paris tragedy

AFP
November 22, 2015, 7:26 am

Paris (AFP) - As if in a movie, two armed jihadists pulled up in a car next to Damien as the French-Belgian man strolled down the road listening to music on his headphones in a trendy part of Paris.

Within minutes the area would become a scene of unimaginable horror, leaving the 39-year old struggling to come to terms with the moment he had come close enough to see the slight smile on the face of one of the gunmen before turning and running.

"I felt a car slow down to my left, I felt someone my height get out," he told AFP, recounting the tragic events of November 13.

He heard a series of blasts. At first he thought they were firecrackers. "Damn, who would make a joke like that?" he thought.

Damien said he had been visiting the French capital for the first time on the fateful night when France suffered its worst-ever terror attacks.

Nineteen of the 130 people slaughtered by gunmen and suicide bombers at bars, restaurants, a concert venue and the national stadium, were gunned down in the street where Damien found himself.

He recalled the chilling seconds he sensed something terrible was about to happen as he strolled down Rue de Charonne -- one of the jihadists' targets -- towards the iconic Bastille square, home to countless bars and restaurants.

"Then I saw a man wearing a dark suit, elegant, with a short beard and black hair," Damien said. In his hands was a Kalashnikov.

He saw another man, also armed, on the other side of the car, and his instinct told him they were probably not the only attackers.

"They were shooting at the cars stopped behind them, very calmly. The guy nearest to me was very calm, with even a slight smile drawn on his lips," said Damien, who was standing just two metres (yards) away.

"They held their Kalashnikovs at their sides, they were extremely relaxed. It was like watching a gangster movie," he said.

No one shouted. "There was no feeling of aggression aside from the violent din (of the shooting). We were all hypnotised."

In a split second, he decided to run in the other direction -- and he kept going until he ran out of breath.

Behind him he heard "an endless stream of bursts of fire", as he, rightly, imagined the worst.

It was 9:36 pm, the Paris prosecutor said, when the killers arrived at the scene. And at 9:38 pm Damien called a friend. In two short minutes, 19 people had been slain.

- 'The same emotions' -

Again and again, Damien said he goes through the moments before the massacre.

"The hardest part is knowing that I shared the same emotions with all those people on the other side of the pavement -- but that they were massacred.

"What if I had arrived 20 seconds earlier?... What if I had taken another path? ... I can't think about it too much -- I get dizzy."

He paid tribute to the victims in the days that followed, lighting a candle on the Rue de Charonne and walking to the Bataclan music venue, scene of the deadliest attack.

He said he thinks he recognises Abdelhamid Abaaoud, believed to have orchestrated the attacks, when he sees his picture online.

Meanwhile, in order to get through the days, he said he tries "to celebrate being alive." Since last Friday "everything has been a bonus."

He said he feels scared every time he hears a loud noise, but finds comfort sharing his experience with other survivors and with police officers.

He said he is glad to "see people around me laugh," but for Damien himself, laughter is for the moment a luxury beyond reach.

 

[Autobot]

The mystery of missing Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam

AFP
November 22, 2015, 3:26 am

Paris (AFP) - Among the many mysteries hanging over the Paris attacks, few are more puzzling than the fate and role of jihadist Salah Abdeslam, subject of an international manhunt since the carnage.

He and his brother Brahim played a key logistical role in the wave of terror that left 130 people dead and hundreds injured, renting cars and hotel rooms where the jihadists could hole up.

Brahim, like another five of the assailants, blew himself up after the bloodshed. A seventh was shot by police.

However Salah did not. Instead he was spirited away to Belgium by two other men who were arrested and charged there.

One of the lingering questions is exactly what role the Belgian-born 26-year-old -- who used to run a bar with his brother in Brussels -- played in the wave of attacks.

On the night of the massacre, the jihadists arrived in a three-car "convoy" from Belgium, investigators have learned as they pore over CCTV footage, GPS maps and telephone surveillance.

Investigators initially thought Salah was part of a "commando team" that drove through the east of Paris spraying cafes and bars with gunfire while another slaughtered 89 people at the Bataclan concert hall.

Another team blew themselves up outside the Stade de France where President Francois Hollande was watching a friendly match between France and Germany.

But several things did not add up.

When Islamic State jihadists issued their claim of responsibility, their statement mentioned the assaults on the stadium, the 10th and 11th districts of Paris, but also the 18th, where no attack took place.

However four days later the police found a black Renault Clio, rented in Salah's name, parked partly over a pedestrian crossing in the 18th district.

Another was found outside the Bataclan, and another was found in Montreuil, a suburb just east of Paris.

All three Bataclan attackers died, and the car found in Montreuil is believed to have been used by ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who was spotted at a nearby metro station.

Investigators now believe Salah drove the Renault Clio, possibly dropping off the three bombers at the Stade de France.

Was he supposed to carry out an attack in the 18th?

The Obs news website reports that the two men held in Belgium say they found him in a state of shock and wearing an explosives vest when they came to spirit him out.

- Did Salah back out? -

Salah was stopped during a routine traffic control check on his way back to Belgium by police who did not yet know he was a wanted man.

Mohammed Amri, 27, and Hamza Attou, 20, who were with him were tracked down by police and arrested. They have told investigators they dropped Salah off in Brussels.

Attou's lawyer told LCI television her client was "very afraid" during the trip.

"My client mentions a big vest... maybe an explosives belt or something like that," said lawyer Carine Couquelet.

"There are many possible theories: was (Salah) a logistical support, was he supposed to blow himself up? Was he not able to do it? We don't know."

A photo of the brown-eyed Salah with an angular face and carefully coiffed hair has been broadcast by police.

Salah and his brother Brahim have been described as "big drinkers and big smokers" by friends who knew them from the bar they ran in Brussels that was closed down by authorities a few weeks ago.

They grew up in the impoverished Brussels area of Molenbeek, a hotbed of Islamist extremism in Europe.

Both had links to another Molenbeek native Abaaoud, the alleged attacks ringleader who was killed in a massive police raid this week.

Salah was arrested alongside Abaaoud for robbery around 2011.

"We can assume that Abaaoud taught him taqiyya -- the Islamic theology of dissimulation -- to fool the security and intelligence services," said Mathieu Guidere, a French terrorism expert.

Under this strategy, set out in manuals published by the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, would-be "martyrs" can smoke cannabis or blaspheme to hide their religion from the authorities.

Brahim tried to travel to Syria in January this year but was stopped at the Turkish border. Salah is suspected of having spent time in Syria.

 

[Autobot]

Turkey holds Belgian citizen over Paris terror attacks while Brussels remains on high alert

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 21 November, 2015, 10:06pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 21 November, 2015, 10:06pm

Agence France-Presse in Istanbul

The sealed-off entrance to a metro station in Brussels. Photo: AFP

Turkey has detained a Belgian citizen of Moroccan origin on suspicion of links to the Paris attacks, the Dogan news agency reported yesterday.

Ahmet Dahmani, 26, is accused of conducting reconnaissance work to choose the sites for the attacks that killed 130 people and were claimed by Islamic State (IS), the report said.

He was detained close to the southern resort city of Antalya along with two Syrian citizens who were to help him cross the border into Syria, the report added.

Anti-terror police had followed Dahmani after he arrived at Antalya's airport and checked into a five-star hotel in the luxury resort of Manavgat to the east of the city on November 16.

Authorities then detained him and the two Syrians, who the report said had been tasked by the IS leadership to supply him with a fake passport and take Dahmani to safety in jihadist-controlled Syria.

It was not immediately clear when they had been detained. All three were taken to court and remanded in custody, the report added.

Antalya had only one week ago hosted - under the heaviest security - the annual Group of 20 summit of world leaders including US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Turkey has long been accused by its Western allies of failing to do enough to halt the flow of jihadists across its border to IS controlled-territory in north Syria.

However the authorities have been making conscious efforts in recent weeks to tighten Turkey's borders, making almost daily arrests of extremists seeking to join IS.

Meanwhile, Brussels shut its metro system as a terror alert was raised to its highest level yesterday, with a gunman still on the run after the Paris attacks which have sent jitters through Europe.

Citizens of the Belgian capital were urged to avoid crowded areas due to reports of an "imminent threat" as Belgium-based jihadists have been increasingly linked to the Paris attacks.

Investigators are working around the clock to track Salah Abdeslam, one of the gunmen still on the loose after a coordinated and deadly wave of attacks on Parisian nightspots.

The carnage has put Europe on edge as it emerged dangerous jihadists slipped between countries, prompting the EU to rush through reforms to tighten border checks in its cherished passport-free Schengen zone.

The United Nations Security Council on Friday authorised nations to "take all necessary measures" to fight IS jihadists and other extremist groups.

 

[Autobot]

Paris attacks may have only cost ISIS $7,500

Reuters
First posted: Friday, November 20, 2015 02:34 PM EST | Updated: Friday, November 20, 2015 06:30 PM EST

People warm up under protective thermal blankets as they gather on a street near the Bataclan concert hall following fatal attacks in Paris, Nov. 14, 2015. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer

LONDON - The militants who killed 130 people in Paris, triggering waves of air strikes on Syria and security alerts around the world, may have spent as little as around 7,000 euros ($7,500) to stage their attacks.

World leaders scrambled to crack down on terrorist financing after the Nov. 13 assaults, which have been claimed by Islamic State in retaliation for strikes on Iraq and Syria.

Within days, France and Belgium announced 1 billion euros worth of additional security measures.

In contrast, the attacks themselves, requiring little more than Kalashnikovs and ammunition, homemade suicide belts, rental cars and apartments, suggest that the eight attackers spent relatively little to kill indiscriminately and sow fear and confusion.

The Sept. 11 attacks on Washington and New York cost between $400,000 and $500,000, according to the independent 9/11 Commission, a sum that covered pilot training for the hijackers, flights and living expenses over an extended period of training and preparation.

A Reuters calculation has estimated the Paris attacks - which killed mainly young people enjoying a Friday evening out at bars, restaurants, the Stade de France sports stadium and the Bataclan concert venue - could have cost less than around 2 percent of that.

Reuters was unable to reliably calculate certain costs including the sum for any accomplices who may have come from outside France and Belgium. These costs were not included in the total.

The most sophisticated part of the attack, making the suicide vests, would have only required some cheap materials. Security sources said this job would have fallen to an experienced bomb-maker who was likely not to have been one of the actual attackers.

All seven dead assailants in Paris were wearing and used suicide belts, with identical TATP detonation compound, a battery and a blow-up button, French police said.

TATP - or "Mother of Satan" as it is known in security circles - can be made from basic household products and was used in the attacks on London in July 2005 and by "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid who tried to blow up an airliner in December 2001, for example.

The chemical ingredients are available at pharmacies for as little as 5-10 euros for each belt, and the bolts used in the belts of the three Stade de France attackers would have cost about 150 euros for 500 bolts each in a DIY store.

There were at least eight attackers and their two Paris apartments - one rented for one week and the other for three nights - could have come to around 680 euros, according to publicly available prices seen by Reuters which were matched against police information on the equipment used.

The Volkswagen Polo, Seat Leon and Renault Clio cars that investigators say were rented to bring the militants from Brussels to Paris would have cost around 595 euros from a major car rental agency, assuming they were rented for one week, including petrol and tolls.

A Kalashnikov can be acquired in the European Union for between 300 and 700 euros, the European Police Office Europol says. The price for 7.62 calibre bullets - the calibre of most of the several hundred bullet shells found outside the restaurants last Friday night - is around 500 euros for 2,000 on the Internet.

With three Kalashnikovs used in the Bataclan attack and three found in one of the cars, plus probably one other, that cost would come to 5,400 euros.

Other costs of the operation remain murky. For example, one of the suicide bombers at the Stade de France may have travelled on a Syrian passport under the name Ahmad Al Mohammad along a well-worn path of refugees fleeing to Europe through Greek islands.

Estimates of the cost of such a trip from the Syria-Turkey border through Greece - also not included in the Reuters calculations - vary widely.

Pulling together information from bus companies, a ferry company, a travel agent, police and a source at a voluntary relief organisation operating on the island of Leros, the cost of travelling from Turkey to the Macedonian border could start at 1,200 euros. That would be the cheapest option, using the kind of dinghies that have resulted in scores of refugee deaths and would not include the cost of forged documents.

For a sea crossing on a safer boat, with forged documents provided, the cost would rise to around 5,000 euros.

 

[Autobot]

Turkish police arrest suspected Islamic State scout in Paris attacks

Reuters
First posted: Saturday, November 21, 2015 02:55 PM EST | Updated: Saturday, November 21, 2015 03:05 PM EST

Turkish police detain Ahmad Dahmani, in Antalya, Turkey, late Friday, Nov. 20, 2015. (DHA via AP)

ISTANBUL - Turkey has arrested a Belgian man of Moroccan origin suspected of involvement in Islamic State's attacks in Paris that killed 130 people a week ago, a Turkish government official said on Saturday.

Ahmet Dahmani, 26, was arrested at a luxury hotel in the southern coastal city of Antalya after travelling from Amsterdam on Nov. 14. Two suspected accomplices were also arrested, the official said.

Without citing its sources, Turkey's Dogan news agency said Dahmani had scouted out the target sites for the Paris attacks, and that the two other men, both Syrian, were detained on suspicion of planning to help him cross safely into Syria.

"We believe that Dahmani was in contact with the terrorists who perpetrated the Paris attacks. The investigation continues," the government official said.

The security forces arrested him because they believed he was an Islamic State militant preparing to illegally cross the Turkish-Syrian border, the official said.

The Belgian authorities had not warned Turkey about Dahmani and he was therefore not among the more than 26,000 names on a list of people, maintained by the Turkish authorities but largely based on foreign intelligence, banned from entering Turkey.

"Had the Belgian authorities alerted us in due time, Dahmani could have been apprehended at the airport," the official said.

Turkey estimates that no more than 1,300 of its nationals are among the many thousands of foreign fighters to have joined the ranks of Islamic State in Syria, less than from some Western European countries, although some diplomats put the figure far higher.

But the group, which holds territory adjacent to the Turkish border in Syria, is trying to recruit more.

In a Turkish-language video released by Islamic State's media arm AlHayat on Saturday, the group called on Turkish Muslims to move to the lands under its control, assuring them it is not dangerous there and that life is normal and prosperous.

Turkey has warned before of the threat from North Africa and deported a group of Moroccans detained at Istanbul's main airport this week over suspected links to Islamic State.

The eight, who said they had arrived at Ataturk airport on Tuesday night from Casablanca for a holiday, were detained by border police and questioned by profiling experts who flagged them as suspected militants, a government official said.

 

[Autobot]

Brussels remains in lockdown as authorities search for 'several suspects' linked to Paris attacks

Troops patrol the Belgian capital as authorities search for 'several suspects' linked to attacks on Paris who may be planning to strike again

PUBLISHED : Sunday, 22 November, 2015, 10:07pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 22 November, 2015, 10:07pm

Agence France-Presse in Brussels

A military armoured vehicle guards next to the Grande Place squares. Photo: EPA

The Belgian capital was locked down for a second day Sunday with police and troops on the streets as the authorities hunted for several suspects linked to the Paris attacks.

With the world on edge over the jihadist threat, US President Barack Obama said the most powerful tool to fight the terror of Islamic State (IS) was to say "that we are not afraid". In Paris, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said a chemical or biological attack "was among the risks" but that all possible precautions had been taken.

Belgian officials were due to meet to decide whether to extend the security alert in Brussels, imposed over fears jihadists were plotting similar strikes to the attacks in Paris which left 130 people dead on November 13.

The city's metro system and public buildings were closed on Saturday, with shops and restaurants following suit after the terror alert was raised to the highest level because of what officials said was an "imminent threat."

Soldiers patrol a popular shopping and dining strip. AFP

Central Brussels, usually bustling on a Saturday evening, was virtually deserted, with police and troops on patrol. Interior Minister Jan Jambon said the authorities were looking not just for Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam who managed to slip past French security forces after the carnage in the City of Light.

He warned that the capture of Abdeslam, a Belgian-born 26-year-old whose brother blew himself up at a cafe in Paris, would not in itself end the threat.

"It involves several suspects and that is why we have put in place such exceptional measures," Jambon said. "We are following the situation minute by minute... there is a real threat but we are doing everything possible day and night to face up to this situation."

Salah Abdeslam may be equipped with a suicide belt, according to Hamza Attou, one of two suspects charged by Belgian authorities for allegedly helping him return to the country after the attacks.

Stores were closed after the terror alert was raised to its highest level. Photo: AFP

Belgium and the capital, home to the European Union and Nato, are no strangers to Islamist violence. Four people were shot dead at the Brussels Jewish museum last year, and in January security forces killed two suspects linked to the Charlie Hebdo killings in Paris.

The EU has been under huge strain trying to cope with a massive flow of migrants fleeing conflict in the Middle East and across Africa and the Paris massacre fanned fears that dangerous extremists could be hiding among the refugees.

The UN Security Council on Friday authorised nations to "take all necessary measures" to fight IS jihadists after a wave of attacks, including the downing of a Russian aircraft in Egypt with the loss of 224 lives and the storming of a luxury hotel in Mali which left 19 dead.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Mali attack, in which six Russians died, "confirms that terrorism knows no borders and is a real danger for the whole world".

Police detain a man after stopping and searching his car. Photo: AP

The suspected ringleader, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was killed in a massive police raid on Wednesday along with his cousin Hasna Aitboulahcen, reportedly a one-time party girl who turned to radical Islam about six months ago.

Abaaoud was a notorious Belgian jihadist thought to be fighting in Syria and his presence in Europe has raised troubling questions about a breakdown in intelligence and border security.

Police also found the body of an unidentified suicide bomber, who, according to DNA tests, is not known to police. In all, seven attackers died in Paris.

 

[Autobot]

The Paris attackers -- what we know so far

AFP
November 23, 2015, 3:29 am

Paris (AFP) - Nine days after the Paris attacks, the suspected ringleader has been killed in a hail of bullets and four of the seven gunmen and suicide bombers have been identified, but many questions remain unanswered.

The suspected mastermind, wanted Belgian jihadist Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was killed along with 26-year-old woman, Hasna Aitboulahcen, in a ferocious post-attacks raid by police Wednesday on their hideout in a northern Paris suburb.

French officials are working to identify a third person, believed to be a male, who also died in the police raid.

One of the alleged attackers of the deadly November 13 attacks, Salah Abdeslam, remains the target of an international manhunt.

Like his brother Brahim, who blew himself up in a bar the night of the attacks, Salah played a key logistical role in the wave of terror that left 130 people dead.

He was spirited away from Paris to Belgium after the November 13 massacre by two other men who were later arrested and charged there.

Who is Salah Abdeslam?

Among the many questions hanging, few are more puzzling than the fate and role of Belgian-born Salah Abdeslam.

His brother Brahim, like five other assailants, detonated an explosives vest the Friday night of the attacks.

A seventh jihadist was shot by police as they stormed the Bataclan music venue. Salah however remains at large.

Investigators believe he may have dropped off the three bombers at the Stade de France stadium where President Francois Hollande was watching a football match between France and Germany.

They also think he may have been planning to carry out another attack in the 18th district of northern Paris.

The Obs news website reports that the two men held in Belgium told investigators that they found him in a state of shock and wearing an explosives vest when they came to spirit him out.

His brother Mohamed Abdeslam on Sunday told RTBF television he thought Salah decided at the very last moment not to go through with his attack.

Salah and his brother Brahim have been described as "big drinkers and big smokers" by friends who knew them from a bar they ran in Brussels that was shut down by authorities a few weeks ago.

A police document obtained by AFP suggests it was shut down because police believed customers were smoking marijuana there.

The brothers grew up in the Brussels area of Molenbeek, a hotbed of Islamist extremism in Europe.

Both had links to Abaaoud, the alleged ringleader of the attacks, who also lived in Molenbeek.

Where was Abaaoud during the attacks?

The Belgian jihadist who allegedly planned the bloodshed has been seen in CCTV footage at a Metro station in eastern Paris at around 10:15 pm (2115 GMT), less than an hour after gunmen began an assault in the city centre, a police source said.

Of Moroccan origin, Abaaoud had spent time alongside Islamic State extremists in Syria and was interviewed by the group's magazine Dabiq.

His presence in Europe has raised serious questions about the work of intelligence services as he had been under an international arrest warrant issued by Belgium, where he was sentenced to 20 years in prison in July. It was widely believed he was still in Syria.

Unidentified bodies

So far, four of the gunmen and suicide bombers who carried out the attacks have been named.

On Friday, prosecutors said two of the men who detonated explosives vests outside the stadium had entered Europe through Greece on the same day in October, pretending to be refugees fleeing the war in Syria.

Investigators have not yet released the identity of those two men. A Syrian passport in the name of Ahmad Al Mohammad was found next to one of them but it is believed it could have belonged to a dead Syrian soldier. The third assailant at the Bataclan concert hall, where dozens were killed, has also not been identified.

Separately, investigators recovered three bodies following Wednesday's raid that killed Abaaoud, 28, and Aitboulahcen, a French woman of Moroccan origin.

On Friday police clarified that they had discovered a third body and that Aitboulahcen had not blown herself up, as previously thought.

So who was the third person who detonated an explosives belt during the police raid? Could it be that of the suspected missing gunman Abdeslam?

Investigators are still examining body parts to try to find out.