French official names alleged mastermind of Paris attacks

A Belgian official said two of the seven people wired with suicide vests were French men living in Brussels, and among those arrested was another French citizen living in the Belgian capital.

More than 160 raids were carried out overnight in Paris while searches are also taking place in Brussels, Belgium for Salam Abdeslam.

Video has emerged of the moment the terrorists attacked, firing repeatedly at fans as band members fled the stage.

Seven people are in custody in Belgium suspected of links to the attacks and an global arrest warrant has been issued for a Belgian-born Frenchman believed involved in the attacks and who is still at large. Mohammad Abdeslam, brother of Salah and Brahim (dead), was among five released after preliminary questioning. The Jihadi is known to have escaped into Molenbeek, where it is assumed several other terrorists live under the guise of escaped migrants.

It is understood they gathered in the Belgian suburb where they were each armed with AK-47s and suicide belts. Six of the Paris attackers spent time in Syria, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV in France.

But the Iraqi dispatch provided no details on when or where the attack would take place, and a senior French security official described it as the kind of warning French intelligence gets “all the time” and “every day”.

French anti-terror units are searching for two other suspects from the attacks after discovering an abandoned auto carrying a cache of AK47 assault rifles. One of the officials said there was a recent attempt to put him under increased surveillance.

A female shooter may have been among the gang who carried out the slaughter inside the Bataclan.

Like many European jihadists, they were an outgrowth of the “inner-city gang phenomenon”, he said, who had already revolted against Western society through petty crime and delinquency before having their antisocial approach “legitimized” by a radical strain of Islam.

He is understood to have run an underground gang in the southern suburbs of Paris.

His brother Houari Mostefai, 34, was arrested and questioned after turning himself in to police on Saturday when he learnt that Ismael was one of the attackers.

A man who rented a VW Polo used by terrorists at the Bataclan was intercepted at the border with Belgium, according to Molins, the Paris prosecutor. “Those who want to hurt the republic, they will be attacked, they will be dealt with, and who helped them”.

But because he was never jailed he was seen as a high-priority prize for terrorist recruiters.

Investigators believe he orchestrated a sleeper cell while working as a baker in Chartres – the cathedral city south west of Paris – in 2012.

Salah Abdeslam, 26, is wanted in Belgium after it was discovered he was involved in the France attack this weekend.

Two addresses were raided in Lille, northern France – understood to be connected Mostefai, a football-mad French national of Algerian descent. 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 Russian Federation, Thursday’s dispatch said. “I called my mother, she didn’t seem to know anything”.

Mostefai used to regularly attend the mosque in Luce in southwest Paris, a source close to the inquiry informed AFP. “We knew for several weeks that we were facing a major risk toward the end of November or early December”.

“Sometimes Omar would wear traditional Islamic clothes sometimes he would dress in everyday, normal clothes”.

“We do not even talk about Syria here”. The passport was found on the bomber’s body outside the Stade de France stadium.

Blic claims Almuhamed arrived in Europe with another of the bombers, on the Greek island of Leros on October 3 on his way to Paris.

Ferry tickets showing the name of a second man, Mohammed Almuhamed, who could be a relation, have been released.

Serbian media says these photos, one of them a passport picture, are of Ahmed Almuhamed, one of the suicide bombers.

Meanwhile, reports of a “suspicious” auto being stopped at the Swiss border are also being investigated. Eighty-nine people were killed and many more wounded.

Attackers also raked the terrace of a pizzeria with gunfire, with a witness saying he saw shots fired from a black vehicle.

He said that “France was attacked, but all of Europe was hit”.

French President Francois Hollande said on Saturday that “the act of absolute barbarism” was “an act of war” organized from overseas by the Islamic State (IS) with internal complicities. Had been under official investigation since October 2012 on suspicion of terrorism-related activity over a plan to go to Yemen.