French officials name Belgian jihadi behind Paris terror attacks

Police stopped him hours after the attacks in a auto on his way toward the Belgian border but let him go because he apparently hadn’t yet been linked to the terrorist operation.

French television BFM and i-Tele say that the suspects are inside an apartment building.

According to French media, at least two suspects are dead as a result of the police operation, including a woman who killed herself with a suicide belt. The militants had previously claimed responsibility. A team of gunmen also opened fire at nightspots in one of Paris’ trendiest neighborhoods.

Police believe two men directly involved in the assault subsequently escaped, including Salah Abdeslam, 26, a Belgian-based Frenchman who is accused of having played a central role in both planning and executing the deadly mission. A few things we won’t tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING.

The French government invoked a never-before-used article of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty obliging members of the 28-nation bloc to give “aid and assistance by all the means in their power” to a member country that is “the victim of armed aggression on its territory”.

“Every country said: I am going to assist, I am going to help”, Drian said. Mounting proof of links between the Islamic State in Syria and the attackers. “This is September 11 for Europe”, he said.

French warplanes have launched wave after wave of airstrikes on ISIS’ de facto capital of Raqqa in northern Syria in recent days, the latest taking place early Tuesday. North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies were sharing intelligence and working closely with France, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation chief Jens Stoltenberg said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the missile cruiser Moskva, now in the Mediterranean, to start cooperating with the French military on operations in Syria. IS has positions in Aleppo province, while the Nusra militant group is in Idlib.

Russia has also targeted the city in retribution for the downing of a Russian airliner last month that killed 224. Also, school has been canceled as police continue their search for the people responsible for last week’s attacks.

As police moved in to the scene, one of the suspects in the apartment – a woman – shot back at police using a Kalashnikov before detonating a suicide vest. However, Iraqi intelligence officials have told The Associated Press their sources indicated 19 people participated in the Paris attacks and five others provided hands-on logistical support.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve conceded that “the majority of those who were involved in this attack were unknown to our services”.

Abdeslam’s brother, Mohamed Abdeslam, was arrested as part of security operations in Belgium but was released because he had an alibi for Friday.

Ismael Omar Mostefai, the only named assailant in the Paris attack so far, was a 29-year-old French national by birth who lived in Chartres. A Spanish security official said Wednesday that French authorities have sent out a bulletin to police across Europe asking them to watch out for a Citroen Xsara vehicle that could be carrying Abdeslam. “I can imagine the concern of the people of Saint-Denis and would like to comment on their levelheadedness and express solidarity with the mayor of Saint-Denis because the attack on the Stade de France happened in his constituency”, he said.

Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins said the identities of the dead are still being investigated, but that neither Abaaoud nor another fugitive, Salah Abdeslam, is in custody. “There were explosions. You could feel the whole building shake”, said Sabrine, a resident of the building that was raided. Both are being held on charges of terrorist murder and conspiracy.

“They had credible evidence that something was in the offing”, she reports. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak about the ongoing investigation. The target of the pre-dawn raid was an apartment in which four suspects, including Abaaoud, were believed to have been holed up.

Kerry flew to France as a gesture of solidarity and met Hollande and Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Tuesday.

And the suicide bombs used by at least six of the attackers were unsophisticated, according to a few analysts.