Suspected Leader of Paris Attacks Killed in Raid

Following a police raid in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis Wednesday, French prosecutors say the suspected mastermind of last week’s terror attacks on the French capital is dead.

Nov 18: At least two people died and 8 were arrested in a November 18 police assault on a building in Saint-Denis.

Police on Thursday confirmed that Abdelhamid Abaaoud was killed in gunbattle when they raided a house in a Paris suburb early Wednesday where the he was holed up.

The statement said his body was discovered riddled with bullet holes.

While quickly tracking him down will be seen as a major success for French authorities, his presence in Paris will focus more attention on the difficulty European security services have in monitoring the continent’s borders.

Earlier, Belgian state broadcaster RTBF cited Belgium’s Federal Justice Department in reporting that police had made one arrest during the raid but did not apprehend Salah Abdeslam, the French citizen at the center of a manhunt for his suspected involvement in last week’s terror attacks in Paris.

He had been linked to a number of terror attacks, including a shooting at a Jewish museum in Brussels in May past year that killed four and a foiled attack on a Paris-bound train in August.

Two police officials briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press that a cellphone dumped in a trash can outside the Bataclan concert hall – where 89 people were killed – proved crucial.

Here’s what we know about the attackers who died in Friday’s attacks on Paris and Wednesday’s police assault in Saint-Denis, north of the capital, as well as others key to investigations.

French officials said they believe that the terror cell directed by Abaaoud was preparing for another terror attack only days after their initial murderous spree left 129 people dead in central Paris.

At least two bodies were found after the ferocious shootout, including what is thought to be a woman who detonated an explosives vest.

But this only raised more questions as another eight people were arrested, none of them Abdeslam.

Valls had pressed for the extension, and warned Thursday that an attack using “chemical or biological weapons” could not be ruled out, though he did not mention a specific threat. He had bragged in the Islamic State group’s English-language magazine that he was able to slip in and out of Europe undetected.

In Belgium, authorities launched six raids in the Brussels region Thursday linked to Bilal Hadfi, one of the three suicide bombers who blew themselves up outside the Stade de France.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls said he welcomed the death of “one of the masterminds” of the attacks.

Another suicide bomber, Brahim Abdeslam, blew himself up outside a cafe on the Boulevard de Voltaire, also causing no fatalities.

France has responded by intensifying its airstrikes campaign against IS in Syria, as well as with a series of anti-terror raids across the country aimed at hunting down all who might have been involved in the attack, which was the deadliest incident on French soil since World War II.

Also on Thursday, the French National Assembly voted to extend the state of emergency for three months following the Paris massacre. Next week, French President Francois Hollande is going to Washington and Moscow to push for a stronger global coalition against IS.