The French government confirmed today that the jihadist accused of masterminding the attacks in Paris died yesterday in a police operation , but he warned that the threat continues and alerted even possible attacks with chemical or biological weapons, while Parliament extended the state of emergency for three months.
the body of Abdelhamid Abaaoud a Belgian of Moroccan descent, 28 and a member of the group Islamic State (EI), was identified by his fingerprints after being found in a building in the Paris suburb of Saint Denis assaulted yesterday by the police, the Attorney General of France reported.
Another person, apparently a woman who blew himself up with explosives, died in the chaotic and operating bloody, but has not yet been identified, officials said yesterday.
French media, however, stated that it was a premium Abaaoud.
it was believed that Abaaoud was in Syria, where had boasted of organizing attacks in the West and move freely in Europe, and its presence in France motivated questioning the regime control the entry of foreigners into the country and doubts about the effectiveness of European secret services.
Considered one of the most wanted men on the planet, Abaaoud had become one of the faces of EI for its profuse custom of hanging videos and photos on social networks.
his grin, his provocative statements had popularized a character that the secret services of several European countries considered key for planning attacks in Europe.
confirmation that a figure as high profile EI managed to infiltrate unnoticed France perhaps through several europeas- borders sparked a call from French Interior Minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, the rest of Europe, which he claimed strengthen their response to the Islamist threat.
it was determined that Abaaoud was involved in six failed attacks this year in France, the minister said, but added that the government had not received "any information" other Europeans that was on the continent.
"it is urgent that Europe wakes up, organize and defend against the terrorist threat," Cazeneuve said in a statement to journalists on the eve of a summit of ministers of Interior and Justice of the European Union (EU) in Brussels.
the Islamist commander had an international arrest warrant issued by Belgium after a court neighboring France country sentenced him to 20 years in prison last July for recruiting jihadists to fight for EI in Syria, where the group fighting to overthrow the local government.
Despite this, just last Monday, three days after the attacks in Paris that left 129 dead and 368 wounded, "the intelligence services of a non-European country indicated that it was aware of their presence in Greece," said French Interior Minister, without specifying which nation.
Abaaoud was linked to a plan to attack a near Paris church last April, and its possible connection with a foiled bombing of a high-speed train going from Amsterdam to Paris in August, Cazeneuve said is also investigated.
in a statement, the French prosecutor Francois Molins said Abaaoud was identified by examination of his fingerprints.
the body of jihadist was found shot dead in the rubble of the building of Saint Denis assaulted by police and besieged for seven hours.
Molins said it was unclear whether Abaaoud blew himself up with explosives, while another body found in the same building is apparently that of a woman, but it also remains to be determined.
French media identified her as Hasna Aitboulahcen, 26 and premium Abaaoud.
Eight suspects were arrested in the raid in Sain Denis, who then threw the authorities received a clue that Abaaoud was in the building.
Molins said yesterday that the Islamist leader was not among those arrested, but did not rule out that it was a man who died in the operation.
Another suspect of involvement in the bombings in Paris, Salah Abdeslam, a Frenchman born in Belgium, continued today fugitive.
it was believed that Abdeslam was the only member of the three commands the slaughter of Paris committed that had survived and escaped but this week police sources quoted by French media said it apparently was a participant ninth is also large.
brother Abdeslam, Ibahim, blew himself up in a cafe but only caused his own death .
Meanwhile, at the request of President Francois Hollande, the National Assembly, the lower house of the French Parliament, approved today by an overwhelming majority of 551 votes to six the extension by three months of state emergency decreed by the government the same day of the attacks.
the law passed modifies another force since 1955 and comes into force on November 26 in France and in the French territories overseas and the Mediterranean island of Corsica.
the measure, similar to the state of Syrian Argentina, authorizes the police to carry weapons outside their working hours, greater control press, including censorship, and Internet. It is estimated that the Senate will approve it tomorrow without any second reading.
Speaking before the Assembly before the vote, the French Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned of the "risk" the use of "chemical and bacteriological weapons" in future attacks.
"currently can not exclude anything. I say this with all the precautions imposed, but we know and what we note: there is a risk of chemical and bacteriological weapons, "he said the head of government
Valls also congratulated the intelligence services and the police for their." exceptional performance "in the "neutralization" of Abaaoud.
"We are at war. a new war, exterior and interior, in which terror is the first goal and the first weapon," he added the premier, who he listed the attacks in France in the last year, since the attack on the magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket in January, where there were 17 fatalities.
since the state was established emergency, police raids multiplied and are made mostly at night or early morning.
from Friday until yesterday, the French police conducted 414 raids, provisionally arrested 64 people and seized 74 weapons, including 11 war, according to a balance of the Interior Ministry, which said that not all searches are related to the attacks on 13 November.
Source: Telam