2 killed, 5 held in Paris suburb standoff

While no police suffered casualties, an explosives dog named Diesel was killed during the stand-off.

Police staged a ferocious seven-hour assault in the north of Paris yesterday after intelligence led investigators to an apartment where the Belgian suspected of orchestrating the worst ever militant attack on French soil was thought to be hiding.

Abaaoud, after being trained and further radicalised in Syria, returned to Europe via Athens.

A woman suicide bomber blew herself up and another militant died on Wednesday when police raided an apartment in the Paris suburb of St Denis, seeking suspects in last week’s attacks in the French capital.

He is someone who openly mocked the inability of Western law enforcement agencies to catch him.

If investigators confirm that Mr. Abaaoud has been killed, it means that-following intensive intelligence work in the aftermath of Friday’s massacre-the French security forces have succeeded in decapitating the deadliest terror network in the country’s recent history.

French officials have told The Associated Press they believe at least one other attacker was involved in Friday’s carnage and is still at large, taking the number to at least nine. Eight suspects, including a woman, were arrested in the operation.

By late Wednesday, the new question was whether or not he is even alive. In a speech following the police siege, Hollande proclaimed that France is “at war” with the Islamic State group, but warned against overreactions and said no anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic or xenophobic acts will be tolerated.

“As things stand, it is impossible to give you the identities of the people detained, which are being verified”, he said.

• A man from the targeted building told BFMTV that that he had allowed two people who “came from Belgium” to sleep in his apartment “for a day or two, ” on the request of his friend.

Authorities have been searching for two more suspects believed to have directly participated in Friday’s series of bombings and shootings.

Whoever those inside the apartment were, they may have been preparing to unleash more terror on the streets of Paris. The terrorist ringleader was reportedly seen in the area going to mosque in the hours leading up to the raid. Seven of the attackers were killed during the attacks, mostly by blowing up the explosives strapped to their bodies. A message on the phone read “We are off and we’re starting”. Rome’s prefect, Franco Gabrielli, said authorities were prepared to shoot down drones and ultralight aircraft if they violate the air space ban.

– Amid gunfire and explosions, police raided a suburban Paris apartment where the suspected mastermind of last week’s attacks was believed to be holed up Wednesday. Another 104 people were put under house arrest, he said.

Gunfire and seven explosions were heard in the Saint-Denis suburb after police raided a flat at around 4.30am.

“My name and picture were all over the news yet I was able to stay in their homeland, plan operations against them, and leave safely when doing so became necessary”, said Abaaoud.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said a cease-fire between Syria’s government and the opposition could be just weeks away.

US President Barack Obama’s top adviser on counterterrorism, Lisa Monaco, told cable channel MSNBC there was “no credible threat” against the United States at the moment. He has also fought along the Islamic State (IS) group from Syria and has been on the run since January.