Paris attacks: French authorities confirm suspected ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud killed in raids

Updated

The suspected organiser of last week's Paris attacks was killed in the police raid of an apartment north of the capital, French officials have confirmed.

Key points: Suspected Paris attacks ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud confirmed dead

Impact-riddled body found in debris after Saint-Denis raids on Wednesday

Identified by his fingerprints

Prime minister Manuel Valls broke the news in parliament to applause from lawmakers

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

"It was his body we discovered in the building, riddled with impacts," a statement from the Paris prosecutor said.

His identity was confirmed from fingerprints.

The prosecutor later added it was unclear whether Abaaoud had detonated a suicide belt.

Overnight, nine people were arrested in Brussels during raids connected to the Paris attacks.

Prime minister Manuel Valls broke the news in parliament to applause from lawmakers, who were voting to extend the country's state of emergency for a further three months.

"We know today ... that the mastermind of the attacks — or one of them, let's remain cautious — was among those dead," Mr Valls said.

Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Abaaoud was implicated in four of six foiled attacks in France since March this year.

Confirmation that Abaaoud was in Paris is expected to result in more attention on European security services, who, ahead of Friday's attacks, had thought he was still in Syria.

"This is a major failing," International Observatory for Terrorism's Roland Jaquard said.

France received "no information" from other European countries on the arrival of Abaaoud, Mr Cazeneuve said.

"Everyone must understand it is urgent that Europe wakes up, organises itself and defends itself against the terrorist threat," Mr Cazeneuve said, shortly after the jihadist's death was confirmed.

Investigations had led police to the house where Abaaoud was holed up in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.

Heavily armed officers stormed the building before dawn, triggering a massive fire fight and multiple explosions.

Officials had said two people were killed in the raid, including a female suicide bomber who blew herself up.

Forensic scientists were trying to determine whether a third person had died. Eight people were arrested.

Two police sources and a source close to the investigation said the Saint-Denis cell had been planning a fresh attack on Paris's La Defense business district.

A source close to the investigation said the female bomber who was killed might have been Abaaoud's cousin.

French PM warns of risk of chemical attack

Analysis by Europe correspondent Philip Williams

Ask any French citizen and chances are they will tell you the freedoms to say do and think whatever they like are high on their list of national priorities.



But right now, there is one that trumps all. Safety.



And if that means cherished rights are to be suspended in what is described as a "war" against terrorism, then so be it.



French president Francois Hollande declared a state of emergency, giving police sweeping powers to arrest and intervene as they attempt to crush the terror cell responsible for Friday's atrocities.



And over the next few weeks, there will inevitably be a far more receptive ear given by politicians and the wider population to demands for greater powers of surveillance that otherwise would have been dismissed as far too draconian.



The problem for authorities in France is not so much a lack of tough legislation, but the sheer technical ability to track and, if needed, stop thousands of potential extremists.



And that task is made all the more urgent given the hundreds of fighters returning from the killing fields of Syria, importing with them deadly new skills and reinforced ideologies.



Combine that with the proliferation of social media and encrypted communications available to plan atrocities and the job of keeping all under tight watch is probably impossible.



There is no doubt governments will boost intelligence sharing and be quicker in flagging concerns.



A lack of coordination between countries is being blamed in part for allowing the alleged ringleader of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, to return to France from Syria undetected.



So there will be billions spent improving the defences throughout Europe, funding the police, the army, the spy services.



And it will come with the blessing of most people.



The fear engendered by the Paris killings remains palpable.



The random targeting of sidewalk dinners, football fans and music lovers brought this home in a way the Charlie Hebdo attacks did not.



The magazine workers were killed in revenge for a cartoon.



But the sprays of bullets hit anyone unlucky enough to be in the wrong place on a Friday night.



And for that reason, those who may have otherwise resisted any erosion of liberties remain silent.



And that is because they fear the loss of the greatest liberty of all — their lives.

Prime minister Valls warned 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.

"We must not rule anything out," Mr Valls said.

"There is also the risk from chemical or biological weapons."

He also 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.

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

A security expert said Mr Valls's warning of a chemical or biological weapons attack cannot be excluded, but stressed this was unlikely as it would be extremely difficult to stage.

Olivier Lepick, an expert on chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, said Paris had been preparing itself for years and was ready to react if it took place.

"What I know from my contacts in the intelligence services is that there is no real, pertinent or cross-checked information that leads one to think that such a type of attack is being prepared," he said.

Mr Lepick said IS had managed to "get its hands on chemical weapons", essentially "a limited amount of mustard gas".

But launching a chemical or biological weapons attack in Europe is something that they could possibly not pull off as there "are very difficult logistical and technical barriers," said the expert at the French Foundation for Strategic Research think-tank.

"It's not enough to have mustard gas ... one has to be able to team that up with a system of dissemination and it is here that things and techniques start getting very complicated," Mr Lepick said.

He said IS and similar groups had been interested in such weapons for a long time but "if it was so simple to stage an attack they would have done it a long time ago and here we are speaking of a period of 20 years".

"These arms are much more difficult to use than Kalashnikovs or explosives belts," Mr Lepick said.

He said France had been preparing for such attacks for the past two decades after a shadowy cult let off deadly sarin nerve gas in Tokyo's subway system in 1995, killing 13 people and injuring more than 5,000 people.

Nine arrests linked to Paris attacks

Belgian police arrested nine people in Brussels overnight 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 statement said.

Many of the raids were in the largely immigrant area of Molenbeek, where ringleader 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.

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

On Monday, a major operation targeting Salah Abedeslam in Molenbeek failed to find the suspect.

AFP/Reuters

Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, terrorism, france

First posted