AP
PARIS, NOVEMBER 19
The suspected mastermind of the Paris terror attacks was killed in yesterday’s dramatic police shoot-out, prosecutors have confirmed.
Belgian jihadist Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 27, is believed to have been the ringleader of last Friday’s massacres which left 129 dead.
In a statement, the Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed that Abaaoud died in the raid and that his body had been identified based on skin samples.
He died in a ferocious six-hour gun and grenade battle which saw 5,000 rounds of ammunition fired by police in the raid in Saint-Denis, north of Paris.
Police launched the operation after receiving information from tapped phone calls, surveillance and tip-offs suggesting that Abaaoud was holed up there.
Abaaoud’s French-born cousin, Hasna Aitboulahcen, 27, was also believed to have been killed in the siege.
A blonde-haired woman, said to be Aitboulahcen, became Europe’s first female suicide bomber when she detonated her explosive vest moments after telling police ‘Help me, help me’.
A French anti-terrorist commander today described watching her head ‘fly through a window’ and land on the street outside.
Another jihadi’s body was found riddled with bullets when more than 100 armed officers stormed the flat in Saint-Denis believing Abaaoud was inside with six other terrorists, including Salah Abdeslam.
It comes as anti-terror police have stormed six addresses in a notorious jihadi hotbed in Brussels linked to one of the Paris suicide bombers.
Prosecutors said the raids took place in the Molenbeek district and other areas of the city, centering on the ‘entourage’ of Bilal Hadfi, who blew himself up at the Stade de France.
In its English-language magazine, ISIS said it will continue its violence and ‘retaliate with fire and bloodshed’ for insults against the Prophet Mohammed and ‘the multitudes killed and injured in crusader air strikes’.
Sick taunts of the Paris mastermind: Abdelhamid Abaaoud boasted of freely crossing Europe’s borders to plot atrocities
The mastermind of the Paris massacres previously bragged about travelling across Europe at will to plot atrocities – even after being arrested.
Belgian extremist Abdelhamid Abaaoud is one of the top recruiters for ISIS now among the world’s most wanted war criminals after orchestrating the Paris attacks that killed 129 people.
Despite being on wanted lists, he has shuttled between Syria and Europe, exploiting the migrant crisis on EU borders.
The 27-year-old has been able to plan two atrocities and brainwash hundreds of young men to join Islamic State, including his 13-year-old brother.
Abaaoud was also seen driving a pick-up truck with a mound of bloody corpses in tow. One of his accomplices sits perched on the back, while another can be heard complaining about the smell.
He told an ISIS propaganda magazine he was arrested in Europe in January preparing a mission to kill civilians and behead policemen. Incredibly, he claims he was not detained.
‘My name and picture were all over the news yet I was able to stay in their homeland, plan operations against them and leave safely when doing so became necessary,’ he said.
His earlier plot – in January in the eastern Belgian city of Verviers – was thwarted when police raided the terrorists’ hideout, killing two suspects.
Abaaoud was not found and is thought to have been in Turkey or Greece directing the pair by phone.
Police found four Kalashnikovs, four handguns, ammunition and explosives during the raid as well as a police radio and uniforms.
French police have said Abaaoud planned the attack from his base in Syria with help in Belgium and France. Abaaoud, who has regularly posed with bodies he decapitated and was seen in Greece in January but evaded arrest, was also linked to the thwarted high speed train attack earlier this year and church attacks around Paris.
