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“It was a simple check. There was no lookout notice at the time of the traffic stop,” a French police official told the AP.

Asked whether Abdelslam’s name had been shared over police networks by then, the official simply said: “I have no explanation.”

It may not have been the only missed opportunity before and after France’s deadliest extremist attack since World War II.

The day before the attacks, senior Iraqi intelligence officials warned France and other members of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State that assaults by the militant group could be imminent, according to a dispatch obtained by the AP. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the group’s leader, had ordered supporters to use guns and bombs and take hostages in the days ahead in coalition countries as well as Iran and Russia, Thursday’s dispatch said.

The dispatch did not say where or when the attacks might take place, and a senior French security official told the AP that French intelligence gets this kind of communication “all the time” and “every day.”

But Iraqi intelligence officials told the AP that they also shared specific details with French authorities before the attack — including the size of a sleeper cell of militants they said was directing attackers sent back to France from Islamic State’s de-facto capital in Raqqa, Syria.

These additional details were not corroborated by French or Western security officials. But one U.S. official said Sunday that the evident weaponry skill displayed by the attackers suggests that they might have received training somewhere.