European Union agrees to reinforce external border controls, will propose major Schengen

The authorities are also trying to establish whether he was connected with the thwarted attack on a high-speed train between Amsterdam and Paris in August, or with a man who was arrested in Istanbul last July as he tried to board a flight to Prague using a fake Swedish passport.

French military spokesman Col. Gilles Jaron said yesterday that French forces have destroyed 35 Islamic State targets in Syria since the attacks on Paris.

Cazeneuve said, “cooperation in the fight against terrorism is crucial” in the European Union, and he will meet with EU ministers on Friday in Brussels to discuss how to deal with terrorism across the territory.

At least 247 jihadists who traveled to Syria and Iraq to join Islamic State, have returned to France, Valls said.

He was the suspected mastermind of last Friday’s attacks in Paris at the Bataclan theatre, bars and restaurants and the Stade de France.

Cazeneuve said Abaaoud had been linked to a foiled plot in April to attack a church near Paris when the alleged attacker Sid Ahmed Ghlam accidentally shot himself in the leg.

By the time the dust settled and the standoff came to an end, two suspects and a police dog were dead, eight people were in custody, and five police officers were slightly wounded.

A Jewish teacher has been stabbed in Marseille by three people claiming to be Islamic State supporters.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve had earlier said that on November 16, after the Paris attacks, an intelligence service of a non-European country had signaled that Abaaoud had been in Greece.

European officials earlier acknowledged that French police stopped Abdeslam the morning after Friday’s attacks at the Belgian border but then let him go.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has warned of the risk of a chemical and biological attack on France, saying the macabre imagination of terrorists knows no limits, The Local reports.

Police on Thursday raided the home of Boulahcen’s mother as it emerged the 26-year-old woman had transformed from a party girl who liked wearing cowboy hats into a radical Islamist who adopted the full-faced veil six months ago.

Fabius, speaking on France-Inter radio, said the group “is a monster”. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing, said the actions were focusing on Hadfi’s “entourage”.

French prosecutors confirmed that Abdelhamid Abaaoud’s bullet and shrapnel-riddled body was identified by his fingerprints.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said Abaaoud was traced through telephone taps and surveillance to the flat in Saint Denis.

According to an Interior Ministry statement released late Wednesday, police have conducted 414 raids under emergency powers since Sunday night, leading to 60 arrests and 75 weapons seizures.