Paris suburb erupts with gunfire, explosions

PARIS

Two terror suspects were killed in a raid in a northern suburb of Paris on Wednesday, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said, as police sought the alleged mastermind behind last week’s attacks.

A female suspect died when she detonated an explosives belt at the apartment in Saint-Denis and a man was shot by police in the pre-dawn operation, Cazeneuve told journalists at the scene.

Seven people were arrested. Paris Chief Prosecutor Francois Molins said they included an associate of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian militant who is thought to have planned Friday’s attacks, and someone who provided accommodation for the assailants.

There was no immediate word on whether Abaaoud, who joined Daesh in early 2013, was among those arrested.

Five police officers sustained minor injuries in a seven-hour siege around the apartment in the Rue de la Republique, close to the town’s cathedral, and a police dog was killed.

Residents were evacuated or told to remain inside as the sound of heavy gunfire and explosions rang out after 4.30 a.m. local time (0330GMT).

Armed police and soldiers sealed off the streets surrounding the apartment and schools remained closed for the day.

“Seven people were arrested, two people were killed, including a woman with explosives,” Cazeneuve said. “We will continue our action against terrorists in the coming days.”

Molins, who also spoke at the scene, not far from the Stade de France where three suicide attackers blew themselves up, said the raid was carried out after a tip-off and telephone surveillance indicated Abaaoud was at the address.

In an earlier statement, Molins’ office said: “One woman, who was holed up in the apartment [and] who activated her explosive vest at the beginning of the raid, is dead. Three people who were in the apartment have been arrested… Two other people were also arrested separately, a man and a woman who were nearby the apartment.”

None of those arrested or killed in the raid have yet been publicly named.

Friday’s attacks in central Paris killed 129 people at a concert hall, in bars and restaurants and outside the national stadium in Europe’s deadliest terror attack since the Madrid train bombings in 2004 that killed 191.

Six of the Paris attackers blew themselves up while a seventh was killed by police. The French authorities have issued a wanted notice for an eighth man, Salah Abdeslam, and also revealed they are searching for a ninth attacker.

All seven of the dead terrorists have been identified, the government said in a statement.

Addressing the National Assembly on Wednesday afternoon, Cazeneuve raised the possibility that a third person was killed in the Saint-Denis raid when he said “at least two people, possibly more” died in the operation.

He assured lawmakers that the raid “was conducted against people who could strike again”.

Abaaoud, who had been thought to be in Syria, has emerged as the prime suspect in organizing Friday’s attacks.

A Belgian of Moroccan origin, he is reported to be an associate of Abdeslam after meeting him in Molenbeek, a suburb of Brussels.

Earlier this year, a Belgian court sentenced him to 20 years in prison in absentia for recruiting for Daesh.

He has been linked to a number of attacks, including a shooting at a Jewish museum in Brussels in May last year that killed four and a foiled attack on a Paris-bound train in August. Abaaoud is also suspected by the Belgian authorities of helping to organize and fund a terror cell in eastern Belgium that was targeted in a police raid in January in which two suspects were killed.

President Francois Hollande told a meeting of mayors that people should not react excessively to the Paris attacks.

“No anti-Semitic or anti-Muslim act can be tolerated,” he said.

According to a French interior ministry statement released Wednesday, a further 118 raids were carried out Tuesday night, resulting 25 arrests and the seizure of 34 weapons.

Since Sunday night, police have targeted 414 addresses under emergency powers, leading to 60 arrests and 75 weapons seizures.