Paris Attacks: Police Launch Raids in Molenbeek Area of Brussels

Belgian authorities conducted seven raids across the Brussels area Thursday that they hope could shed further light on the plot behind the Paris attacks.

Hundreds of Belgians joined a candlelight vigil in solidarity with the victims of the Paris attacks on Wednesday in Molenbeek, the troubled Brussels neighbourhood where the brothers lived.

Two others in the flat were found hiding under the rubble from the police bombing of the unit.

Wednesday’s raid was launched after a discarded mobile phone and tapped telephone conversations allowed investigators to identify a series of safe houses, with the suggestion that Abaaoud may have been holed up in an apartment less than a mile from the Stade de France, where one of the terror attacks took place. The Paris prosecutor’s office earlier told CNN that police were searching the home of the female suicide bomber’s mother there.

Abaaoud, an Belgian jihadist and top Islamic State commander thought to be behind France’s deadliest terror attacks last Friday, was identified using prints.

A man in Saint-Denis told reporters that he had rented out the besieged apartment to two people last week. Another suspect, whom we can now assume was Abaaoud, was killed by either gunfire or a grenade explosion during the confrontation with police. He added, “We know that there could also be a risk of chemical or biological weapons”.

Valls did not say there was a specific threat involving such weapons.

Speaking on Thursday, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel pledged a security crackdown and an extra 400 million euros ($427 million) to fight Islamist violence, while rejecting criticism of Belgium’s security services in the wake of the Paris attacks.

The prosecutor’s office told AFP the raids targeted places “linked to Bilal Hadfi”, the 20-year-old who died when he set off his explosives on Friday, in Brussels as well as the suburbs of Uccle, Jette and Molenbeek, which is dubbed a haven for extremists.

“All democratic forces have to work together to strengthen our security”, Michel said.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius urged the global community to do more to eradicate the Islamic State group, which claimed responsibility for the attacks on a rock concert, Parisian cafes and the national stadium. “We’re off, it’s started”, it read.

President Francois Hollande said the “particularly perilous” operation in Saint-Denis proved France was involved in a “war against terrorism”. Two of the nine have been charged with terrorist murder and belonging to a terrorist group, the official said.

A Spanish security official said French authorities had sent a bulletin to police across Europe asking them to watch out for a Citroen Xsara auto that could be carrying Salah Abdeslam, whose brother, Brahim, was among the attackers who blew themselves up. If it is a considered a “public danger”, they could do it without a warrant from a judge.