Paris attacks ‘mastermind’ killed in raid

The Islamic State jihadist suspected of masterminding the Paris attacks was killed during a major police raid, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls confirmed to MPs on Thursday.

“Terrorism hit France not because of what it is doing in Iraq and Syria… but for what it is”, Valls told the lower house of Parliament.

“We don’t know at this point in the investigation if there are groups, individuals, who are directly linked to the attack on Friday evening”, Valls told France 2 television.

In another development, police in Belgium have said they are hunting for a man known as Mohammed K who they believe may have built suicide vests for the attackers.

In addition, authorities have not detailed his exact whereabouts or actions during the deadly rampage that killed 129 people last week in Paris.

A French security official said Abaaoud was seen on a surveillance camera in the subway at around the time of the shootings and suicide bombings on 13 November. “It’s a condition of our collective security”.

The French parliament overwhelmingly voted in favour of a three-month extension of the state of emergency, with 551 deputies voting for the measure, six voting against it and one abstention.

More than 800,000 migrants and refugees have arrived this year and Valls said some of the Paris attackers had turned the chaos to their advantage.

Concerns about Europe’s porous borders prompted interior and justice ministers meeting in Brussels on Friday to promise tightened border controls to make it easier to track the movements of jihadis with European passports travelling to and from warzones in Syria.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Thursday hailed the death of Abdelhamid Abaaoud at the hands of security forces in a massive police raid in Paris.

Police sources said a tip-off from Moroccan intelligence had helped track Abaaoud to the apartment building where he died. France has only said it got the information from a country outside Europe.

“We can not discount the possibility for potential complex attacks here in the Homeland”, it said.

Salah Abdeslam, one of the suspected gunmen in the attacks, is still being hunted by police.

French lawmakers on Thursday were to begin debating whether to extend the state of emergency declared after last week’s attacks to February, and expand it to allow suspects to be placed under house arrest.