Two deaths and seven arrests in anti-terror action Paris

Special units of the French police have Wednesday morning at a home in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis held a major anti-terror operation. There are definitely two suspects killed and seven people were arrested. The action was ended shortly before noon.

The action was directed against Abdelhamid Abaaoud (27), the alleged mastermind behind the attacks in Paris. The Belgian jihadist would have along with some heavily armed accomplices entrenched in the house in St Denis, north of Paris.

There are detained seven suspects, police reported. Among the arrested are at least three men who also stayed in the apartment, and a man and a woman who stayed in the area, the French prosecutor announced earlier. It is still unclear where the last two arrests. Or Abaaoud is one of the detainees, and whether he was in the house at all, is not yet known.

The police reported that two people were killed. The two dead, a man and a woman, both were suspects. The woman blew himself up with a bomb belt. Earlier it was by French media reported three people, including a passerby. However, the deputy mayor said that no civilian casualties.

Five officers of the special police unit RAID were slightly injured. The police also showed that one of its police dogs, Diesel, "was slain by terrorists."

Explosions and gunfire

 The action began early on Wednesday morning around 4:20 am in St. Denis. There were heard several explosions and fierce firefights. The riot police cleared the streets around the building. The population was not called upon to enter the deposits that surround the town of Saint-Denis. Residents in that area were commanded to stay indoors.

According to French media, dozens of residents have been evacuated. The police feared that are brought into the apartment explosives.

St. Denis is the same area as where the Stade de France is located, the stadium last week was one of the targets of IS-terrorists. The apartment is besieged located two kilometers away from the stadium, on the Rue de la
République.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud

The Belgian jihadist Abdel Hamid Abaaoud, also known as Abu Umar al-Baljiki is also held responsible for previous attacks in Europe, including the failed attack on the TGV between Paris and Amsterdam on August 21st. Earlier it was assumed that he would have directed the bombers from Syria in Paris. Abaaoud was the leader of a terrorist cell in Verviers that was rolled up in January. He was sentenced in absentia to twenty years in prison.
He comes from the Brussels district of Molenbeek. In 2014 he had traveled with his younger brother to Syria. His family claimed earlier that he had been killed there, but police is incorrect.

volkskrant.nl/© ANP