Official: Firefight in Paris suburbs thwarted more terror

Show Caption Hide Caption Suspects in Paris attacks, police exchange gunfire in raids Heavily-armed French police conducted raids in the suburb of Saint-Denis, where the mastermind of the Paris attacks is thought to be holed up. A woman with a suicide bomb vest blew herself up. One man was killed; several others were arrested.

A fierce firefight with a band of suspected terrorists holed up in a suburban Paris apartment ended Wednesday with at least two suspects killed and an imminent attack thwarted, authorities said.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said SWAT teams and other officers fired 5,000 rounds of ammunition in an hours-long assault that targeted Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 27, accused of orchestrating a series of attacks that killed at least 129 people in the French capital Friday.

Abaaoud was not arrested in the raid, and the dead suspects have not been identified, Molins said. Phone data and eyewitness statements led the manhunt to the apartment, he said. One of the dead was a female suicide bomber who detonated explosives as police closed in.

CNN reported last night that within hours of the assault, ISIS released a new video that purportedly shows its members arming for possible fresh attacks on other locations, including New York City. Screen grabs from the video show ISIS members making what appear to be bombs and arming themselves with suicide belts or vests, hidden by jackets. The video then cuts to crowded street scenes in New York City.

New York Police Commissioner William Bratton said at a late-night press conference that the video is "a mish-mosh" of old ISIS propaganda videos and that there is no blatant new threat. He stressed that the police force is continually monitoring all possible terrorist threats but have not received any new information that indicates an imminent threat.

Multiple media organizations, citing unnamed sources close to the French investigation, said Abaaoud's cousin may have been the female suicide bomber. The Washington Post, citing two senior European intelligence officials, said Abaaoud was killed in the raid.

At least five police officers were injured during the operation, which began about 4:30 a.m. Wednesday local time. A police dog named "Diesel" also was killed.

Periodic gunfire and explosions were heard for several hours around Saint-Denis, a Paris suburb about 5 to 6 miles from the city center where the operation took place. The apartment is about a mile from Stade de France stadium where three suicide bombers blew themselves up during Friday's attacks.

Residents of the working class area were evacuated and placed in shelters in the town hall, French journalist Djamel Mazi reported on Twitter. Schools and shops were closed and residents were urged to remain indoors. No hostages were taken.

Jawad Bendaoud, a man identified by French broadcaster BFMTV as the owner of an apartment on the street where the raid took place, said he let some of the suspects take refuge in his home. "I didn't know they were terrorists," he said. "Someone asked me to put two people up for three days and I did them a favor."

Bendaoud was subsequently arrested.

"We tried to stop our children hearing the noise," Farah Appane, who lives about 80 yards from where the raid took place, told the Associated Press. "My 19-month-old was crying. Our 8-year-old said 'What is it? Are there more attacks?' "

Overnight raids netted 25 arrests and the seizure of 34 weapons, the French Interior Ministry reported. The ministry said more than 400 raids have resulted in 60 arrests since Friday's attacks.

Seven attackers died in Friday's assaults, officials said. A manhunt also continued for at least one other suspect, Salah Abdeslam, who fled the city hours after the bloodbath.

The French government said Wednesday that all 129 victims of Friday's attacks had been identified. The attacks left more than 350 wounded, 195 of whom remained in the hospital Wednesday, dozens of them in intensive care.

In an address to French mayors in Paris, President Francois Hollande said that the Islamic State — the militant group that claimed responsibility for Friday's attacks— was a grave threat to the entire world and that a large coalition was needed to counter its activities.

Hollande said he will travel to Washington on Tuesday to hold talks with President Obama and to Moscow on Thursday for discussions with President Vladimir Putin. Charles de Gaulle, a French aircraft carrier, was on its way to the Middle East to support France's military operations in Syria, he added.