Brussels arrests in connection with Paris shootings

Meanwhile French reports say the mastermind of the operation, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, is a Belgian citizen of Moroccan descent who had gone fight in Syria, where he’s believed to be now.

One of Brahim Abdeslam’s brothers, Salah, is believed to be on the run and is wanted by French police over his alleged involvement in the Paris attacks which claimed the lives of 129 people. A few have reportedly headed to Syria to take part in the war and joined up with militant factions, including Islamic State. Abdeslam was stopped by the French police early Saturday as he drove on a highway into Belgium, but he was let go when his papers appeared to be in order. He travelled to Turkey in 2012, and probably then slipped into Syria.

A source close to the investigation named two other French assailants as Bilal Hadfi, 20, and Ibrahim Abdeslam, 31, brother of Saleh Abdeslam, who police suspect rented the black VW Polo auto used during the shootings.

He was registered crossing into Belgium at the weekend in a VW Golf which was later found in Brussels.

The violence that hit six sites around the city has deepened the trauma for Parisians, who had already been shaken by a series of terrorist attacks in January that left 17 people dead.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said 168 locations across France were raided overnight, and 104 people were placed under house arrest in the past 48 hours.

Belgian authorities carried out an anti-terror raid in Verviers, outside of Brussels to destroy a suspected Islamic State (IS) cell, killing two suspected IS members in the ensuing gun battle but leaving Abaaoud at large.

Two small explosions were heard during a major police raid in the Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek, amid a manhunt for a suspect in the Paris attacks.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said Molenbeek was a “giant problem”, according to Belgian TV Sunday, and the government should “focus more on repression”.

“Whether it’s the control of our external borders, or the exchange of information including sensitive information between countries, this must be done more and more in Europe”.

One of the suicide bombers who blew himself up in the Bataclan concert hall after helping to murder 89 concert-goers was identified as 28-year-old Samy Amimour, a French national who had been charged with terrorism offenses in 2012 and was the subject of an worldwide arrest warrant. A Pentagon source told Fox News, “these were French strikes but they were conducted within the coalition”.

“It can be that a terrorist was infiltrated there (through the refugee route)”.

Arriving officers traced the blood to the auto of Sid Ahmed Ghlam, in which they found an arsenal of weapons and indications he was planning to storm a church later in the day.

A senior Turkish official said authorities in his country identified Mostefai as a possible “terror suspect” in October past year, and notified French authorities in December and again in June.