French authorities hunting terror planner launch predawn raid

“As regards the woman who blew herself up, …it could be a cousin of Abdelhamid Abaaoud”, the source told Reuters.

Investigators have identified Abaaoud, a Belgian of Moroccan descent, as the chief architect of Friday’s attacks in Paris, which killed 129 people and wounded 350 others.

Police suspect he might have been in the apartment they targeted on Wednesday, and are still checking the identities of those killed in the raid.

Seven jihadists were killed or blew themselves up in the attacks on the stadium, a concert hall, bars and restaurants that were claimed by the Islamic State group operating in Iraq and Syria.

The remarks by Molins came after anti-terror police and soldiers had flooded the streets of the Saint-Denis district. “I didn’t know they were terrorists”.

Officers operate in Saint-Denis.

Police are hunting for two other individuals, including 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, suspected of taking part in the attacks with his suicide-bomber brother Brahim. I couldn’t say how many shots were fired, but it was probably 500.

A second body is removed from the apartment raided by French Police special forces earlier in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis. “All will be done to determine who is who, and based on the work of forensic police, we’ll tell you who was in the apartment – and what consequences it will have for the development of the investigation”. Boasting a high- profile on social media, Abbaoud is also linked by French officials to a failed assault on a Paris-bound high-speed train in August and a plot to attack a church in the city in April. The video was among evidence authorities used in concluding that at least one other attacker was at large, the French officials indicated.

– German officials said they haven’t found any explosives or made any arrests at a stadium in Hannover, Germany, which was evacuated just before a friendly match between Germany and the Netherlands Tuesday.

Speaking after Wednesday’s raid, French President Francois Hollande praised the bravery of the security services and said that France was “at war” with IS, which he called a global threat.

In Syria, France and Russia bombed targets to punish Islamic State for the coordinated Paris massacre and the downing of a Russian airliner over Sinai on October 31.

The French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle steamed from the southern port of Toulon on Wednesday, heading for the eastern Mediterranean to participate in intensified air strikes against IS targets.

French President Francois Hollande was to hold discussions on Wednesday on extending to three months the state of emergency declared after the worst attacks in French history.

IS said it had carried out the attacks in response to France’s air campaign against its leadership in Syria, and pledged further bloodshed.