The FINANCIAL — French authorities suspect Abdelamid Abaaoud, a Belgian-born Islamic State operative and presumed mastermind of the deadly Paris terror attacks may be in a suburb north of the city where elite police were conducting a raid early on November 18, a spokeswoman for the Paris Prosecutor said, according to Nasdaq.
Investigators suspect Mr. Abaaoud has holed up in Saint-Denis, where a police operation is targeting men linked to the Paris attacks, she said.
TV footage from the area show soldiers in fatigues with heavy machine guns deployed in the area and police advised local residents to stay indoors. Heavy gunfire was heard intermittently.
Mr. Abaaoud is one of two people who have emerged at the center of the probe into the attacks that killed 129 people on Friday. Both are at large. French and Belgian authorities are also searching for Salah Abdeslam, who they say took part in the attacks. Late Tuesday, police said they now believe there was another man in the car with Mr. Abdeslam and his brother during the brutal onslaught.
Police have been conducting a major manhunt for Salah Abdeslam, who investigators say was involved in the attacks.
After watching surveillance video footage, investigators say they now believe that three people were in a car that dropped off a suicide bomber near a restaurant in eastern Paris Friday night. French authorities initially thought only two people were in the car—Mr. Abdeslam, and his brother, Brahim Abdeslam, who was killed when he detonated an explosive vest in front of the restaurant.
The presence of three men in the car suggests the group was comprised at least nine people, including seven suicide bombers who carried out the Friday night massacre. Paris prosecutors cautioned that the group of participants may have been even larger.
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