Reports: Suspected mastermind of Paris attacks identified

Luke Skywalker · Nov 16, 2015

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[h=4]Reports: Suspected mastermind of Paris attacks identified[/h]Prime Minister Manuel Valls said more than 150 police raids were carried out in France overnight following the attacks Friday.

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Tension remains, but Parisian residents are returning to familiar routines the first weekday after the deadly attacks.

People spend a moment mourning the dead at the site of the attack at the Cafe Belle Equipe on rue de Charonne, prior to going to work early on November 16, 2015 in Paris.(Photo: KENZO TRIBOUILLARD, AFP/Getty Images)

PARIS — A French official identified the suspected mastermind of the attacks that killed 132 people in Paris on Friday as Belgian national Abdelhamid Abaaoud,*according to media reports.
The official, who the Associated Press said was not authorized to publicly speak about the investigation,*said Abaaoud*is believed to be linked to thwarted attacks on a*high-speed train bound for the French capital and a church in the Paris area earlier this year.
French radio station RTL described Abaaoud, 27, as “one of the most active (Islamic State) executioners” in Syria.*Reuters reported that*Abaaoud is currently in the war-torn country,*citing a source close to the investigation.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said raids were carried out on*168 locations across France*overnight, and 104 people have been placed under house arrest over the past two days.*French media reported that five people were arrested and police seized weapons including a rocket launcher at an apartment in Lyon.
In Brussels, a manhunt continued for at least one suspect in the attacks. Three people were taken into custody over the weekend in the Molenbeek neighborhood, a relatively poor area of the Belgian city where many Muslims reside.
Two more suicide bombers involved in the attacks*were identified*by authorities Monday.*Paris prosecutors named an attacker*who blew himself up in the Bataclan music hall Friday as Samy Amimour, a 28-year-old French national who was charged in a terrorism investigation in 2012.
The*broadcaster BFMTV reported that three of his relatives were detained by police.
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Prosecutors said*Amimour was put*under judicial supervision*but dropped off authorities’ radar in 2013 and an*international warrant was issued for his*arrest.*AFP said Amimour's family said he went to Syria two years ago.
Another bomber who targeted*the national stadium was found with a Syrian passport bearing*the name Ahmad Al Mohammad, a 25-year-old born in Idlib, prosecutors said. Fingerprints from the attacker match those of someone who passed through Greece in October, they added.
The passport's discovery*raised*concerns that Islamic State militants*may be*crossing into Turkey before moving to*Western Europe alongside the hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants who have entered Europe this year, many of them fleeing the civil war in Syria.
Authorities previously identified one of the suicide bombers as Omar Ismail Mostefai.*A Turkish official told the AP on Monday that*authorities flagged him to their*French counterparts*as a possible terror suspect*in 2014 but received no response.*Paris prosecutors said he was been flagged as having ties to*extremism five years ago.
In April,*French authorities said they foiled an "imminent" terrorist attack on churchgoers after a man was arrested in Paris with an arsenal of weapons. In August, passengers*tackled and subdued*a man as he apparently prepared to open fire on a high-speed*train from Amsterdam to Paris.
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The French capital began the working week with all the usual energy and noisy activity associated with this city of 2.2 million as the manhunt for accomplices of the militants*continued Monday. A minute's silence was held across the nation at midday*to honor the dead.
In busy intersections around the Place de la Republique and in myriad locations around the capital, commuters, students and school children navigated the swiftly moving bikes, mopeds, taxis and commercial vehicles as part of the familiar, early-morning grind.
At least one man, Salah Abdeslam, a Belgian-born French national,*remains at large following the attacks, which have been claimed by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. The*26-year-old*is the brother of one of seven terrorists who died in the attacks. Another brother was arrested in Belgium, authorities said.
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"We push on," said Florian Grisson, a waiter at a cafe in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, not far from where 89 people, many of them young, lost their lives when gunmen lay siege to the Bataclan music venue.
"Right now it's best to work, work," he said, before hurrying off to serve other customers. Others nearby who overheard his comments nodded their heads as if to concur.
France retaliated with airstrikes Sunday, destroying a training camp and a munitions dump in ISIL's de-facto capital of Raqqa in Syria, where the attacks are likely to have been planned.
The New York Times reported that U.S. warplanes targeted hundreds of trucks smuggling crude oil the militants are producing in Syria for the first time Monday, with the aim of cutting off their revenue.
Onyanga-Omara reported from London
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Reports: Suspected mastermind of Paris attacks identified

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