Mastermind Behind Paris Attacks Identified As Active ISIS Executioner From Belgium – Reports

Abdelhamid Abaaoud

Investigators have identified the alleged sponsor and mastermind of Friday’s massacre in Paris. He had direct contact with the terrorists, media report. The suspect is believed to be a Belgian national and an active Islamic State executioner in Syria.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 27, financed and organized the attacks and the explosions in the French capital, RTL radio said, citing investigating authorities. The report added that Abaaoud was the “butcher” of the Islamic State group and had carried out several grisly executions.

Belgian police stage a raid, in search of suspected Muslim fundamentalists linked to the deadly attacks in Paris, in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek, November 16. 2015. © Yves Herman / Reuters

Abaaoud is said to be from the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek, notorious for being an Islamist hotspot. This is the same area where another suspect in the Paris attacks, Salah Abdeslam, was raised.

Abaaou’s nationality and citizenship is as yet unclear. RTL says he is a Belgian national and the local DH newspaper reported that he may be of Moroccan extraction.

In January, Abaaoud’s name was mentioned in a series of planned attacks across Belgium. Later, he appeared to be the sponsor of that terror campaign.

According to DH, he was one of the leaders of terrorist cells in the town of Verviers, near the Belgian border with Germany.

Abaaoud’s cellphone is reportedly Greek. According to an investigation carried out earlier this year, his trail was lost in Greece and since then has gone cold. It also turned out that two identified terrorists behind the Paris attacks, both Syrian nationals, entered Europe through Greece several months ago.

Belgium, along with France, has recently carried out numerous anti-terror raids to track down people suspected of being linked to Friday’s attacks, which killed at least 129 people and wounded 352.

On Sunday, Belgian police arrested seven people in the Molenbeek area of the Belgian capital, who are suspected of being connected to the Paris massacre. The mayor of the district earlier acknowledged that Islamic radicals use the neighborhood, almost entirely populated by Muslims, as a convenient transfer point on the main crossroad point of the continent.

The French and Belgian authorities have released a photo and issued an international arrest warrant for 26-year-old Abdeslam Salah, saying the man is very dangerous and warned the public not to directly intervene if they see him.

International Manhunt Underway For Suspect Involved In Paris Attacks

RT reports that an international arrest warrant has been issued for a 26-year-old French national suspected of being “directly involved” in Friday’s attacks in Paris. The investigation team says up to 20 plotters and perpetrators could have been behind the terror spree.

The French and Belgian authorities have released a photo and issued an international arrest warrant for 26-year-old Abdeslam Salah, saying the man is very dangerous and warned the public not to directly intervene if they see him.

Salah, who lived in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek, has been linked to a rental car discovered near the Bataclan concert hall – the scene of a horrific hostage siege, which claimed 89 lives.

One of the suspect’s brothers, Ibrahim, has been identified as the perpetrator of one of the suicide attacks of Friday night. Their third brother was reportedly detained for questioning in Belgium.

According to an Associated Press report, Salah was stopped by police in a Volkswagen Polo with two others men shortly after the attacks. The officers apparently let him go after checking his ID. Since then, the suspect has been on the run.

The French authorities have already identified five of the seven terrorists killed, while they have detained a number of people associated with the attacks who are being questioned.

So far the investigation is leading towards a theory that Friday night’s atrocities were led by a group of French nationals, but possibly coordinated through Belgium. Two cars registered in Belgium were found in the French capital after the attacks, and both are suspected of being used by the terrorists.

A senior official familiar with the investigation told the Washington Post that as many as 20 people all over Europe are suspected of helping to organize the assaults, that were carried out by three terror groups almost simultaneously.

“The despicable attacks which hit us on Friday were prepared abroad, and a team of participants was mobilized on Belgian territory, which could have benefited, the investigation indicates, from help in France,” French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Sunday.

“In the forthcoming days we will bring together our police services and information services to again compare the different elements, and different information we have and to bring together all the information that we both have,” he added.