A French police official has named the alleged mastermind of a deadly string of suicide bombings and shootings in Paris as known Belgian extremist Abdelhamid Abaaoud, reports The Guardian.
As evidence mounted of a major international terror operation, run from Syria and carried out by a sleeper cell based in Belgium, the official told AP that Abaaoud was the man behind the plot.
Abaaoud’s name is linked to one of the Paris suicide bombers who blew himself up in the attacks on Friday, and is also suspected of involvement in a narrowly averted attack on a Thalys high-speed Amsterdam-Brussels train in August.
The development came after police carried out at least 150 early-morning raids around France and French jets launched “massive” overnight airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Syria.
Prosecutors have also named two more of the seven suicide bombers. One, who blew himself up in the packed Bataclan concert hall, was identified as Samy Amimour, 28, a French national who was the subject of an international arrest warrant.
Another attacker, who detonated his explosive vest outside the Stade de France stadium, was carrying a Syrian passport in the name of Ahmad Al Mohammad, aged 25, from Idlib. His fingerprints matched those of someone who entered Europe through the Greek island of Leros in October, the prosecutors said.
A shocked nation has returned to work after a weekend that witnessed the bloodiest attack on French soil since the second world war. President François Hollande – who called the attacks “an act of war” that must be countered “mercilessly” – was due to make a historic address to both houses of the French parliament at Versailles. A minute’s silence was also observed around the country at midday.
The French prime minister, Manuel Valls, said several hundred police carried out more than 150 dawn raids across France. Most were described as “preventative” anti-terroroperations under the nationwide state of emergency declared in France since the attacks.