Paris attacker linked to Belgian IS cell

But fingerprint analysis soon revealed that the Greeks had the wrong men.

And French police failed to arrest Salah Abdelslam, 26, who rented the Belgium-registered VW Polo that transported the Bataclan attackers to the concert hall, when they stopped his auto on the highway linking Paris to Belgium in the hours following Friday’s attack. But one USA official said Sunday that the evident weaponry skill displayed by the attackers suggests that they might have received training somewhere.

“We are integrated, we respect the law of the country and we work, pay taxes, respect the inhabitants”, he said of the Muslim community.

However, in the coming weeks and months, President Hollande and his allies in the global community need to be cautious about seeing the response to the Paris attacks as any kind of war.

A third brother of Salah Abdeslam was arrested in Belgium and has allegedly been questioned before being released.

His lawyer, Nathalie Gallant, said that, unlike his two brothers, Mohammed Abdeslam “didn’t make the same life choice” and had not been “tempted into jihadism”. Not only did the citizens of the United Kingdom carry on in the face of terrorist attacks, the Troubles proved in the end that hard-core tactics such as imprisonment without trial and soldiers on the ground can not win the struggle against a small band of terrorists – instead, peace was found through engagement, realpolitik and a proper consideration of where power and influence really lies. We do not know where he is right now.

Authorities have identified five of the seven dead assailants from Friday’s assault, including at least four French nationals, a few of whom lived in Belgium, who are believed to have fought in Syria.

Mostefai was thought to be one of three suicide bombers who took control of the concert hall, killing at least 89 people and holding more than 200 concert-goers hostage. “But those who go, still come from Molenbeek and Brussels”. The Islamist group known as Islamic State has no logistics network in Western Europe. “We’ve tried prevention. Now we’ll have to get repressive”. “The reunion was very cold”. One is confirmed to have entered Greece as a migrant earlier this year.

Another, said to have been identified by the print on a recovered finger, was 29-year-old Frenchman Ismael Mostefai, who had a record of petty crime and had been flagged in 2010 for ties to Islamic radicalism. Seven of the attackers blew themselves up.

Prosecutors yesterday disclosed a growing Belgian connection to the Paris attacks as Premier Charles Michel conceded that a Brussels neighbourhood is a “gigantic problem” given its past links to global terrorism.

The degree of his participation in each plot has yet to be determined.

He left for Syria on September 11, 2013, violating the terms of his bail, and prompting judges to issue an global warrant for his arrest.

Ayoub El Khazzani, the perpetrator of the foiled attack in August on the Paris-bound train from Amsterdam, stayed in Molenbeek with his sister before boarding the locomotive in Brussels. One attack destroyed 116 fuel trucks used by the organization near the Iraqi border, while others struck fighting positions and explosives caches in both countries, according to a statement from the Combined Joint Task Force, which is coordinating the global operation.

“These weren’t specifics targets”, the French official said, “rather, ideas of places to strike, so as to spread fear everywhere”.

A police operation is also under way in Brussels, Belgium. Belgium itself has gained the distinction of being the highest per-capita supplier of recruits for jihad in the Middle East. Early in 2015, a Belgian judge designated Sharia4Belgium a terrorist organization, and 45 people associated with the group were found guilty of terror-related offenses.

Abaaoud is believed to have joined the Islamic State sometime in 2013. He has appeared in a number of its videos, including one from March 2014 in which he drives a pickup truck with a string of dead bodies attached.

“Molenbeek is a odd part of the town”, Brussels-based intelligence expert Claude Moniquet said.

Abaaoud boasted about his escape from Europe and return to Syria in a subsequent interview with Isis’ propaganda magazine.

Before driving off, a grinning Abaaoud tells the camera: “Before we towed jet skis, motorcycles, quad bikes, big trailers filled with gifts for vacation in Morocco”.