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Belgian Who Fought for ISIS Masterminded Paris Attack, Official Says Paris Attacks Plotted by Belgian Who Fought for ISIS, French Officials Say
(about 2 hours later)
BRUSSELS — The French authorities have concluded that Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 27-year-old Belgian man who has fought in Syria for the Islamic State, was the mastermind of the Paris terrorist attacks. BRUSSELS — The hunt for those responsible for the Paris terrorist attacks escalated on Monday as French officials identified a 27-year-old Belgian who fought for the Islamic State in Syria as the chief architect of the assaults and the police in France and Belgium conducted extensive raids seeking other suspects.
A French official briefed on the investigation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss operational details, said that Mr. Abaaoud — already a suspect in a Belgian terrorist plot that was foiled in January — had mentioned plans to attack “a concert hall” to a French citizen who returned from Syria. Mr. Abaaoud, this official said, was also in contact with Ismaël Omar Mostefaï, one of the Paris attackers. Three days after the attacks, which killed 129 people, French and Belgian security services were focused on the role of the Belgian, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who is among the most prominent Islamic State fighters to have come out of Belgium and has been linked to a series of previous terrorist plots.
President François Hollande of France said the attacks had been “planned in Syria, organized in Belgium, perpetrated on our soil with French complicity,” and he described Syria as “the biggest factory of terrorists the world has ever known.” A French official briefed on the investigation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss operational details, said Mr. Abaaoud had mentioned plans to attack “a concert hall” to a French citizen who returned from Syria.
Mr. Hollande reiterated his determination to annihilate the Islamic State. “France is at war,” he told a rare joint session of Parliament at the Château de Versailles. Mr. Hollande proposed extending the state of emergency that he declared on Friday for three months, and making it easier to revoke the French citizenship of those who hold dual passports and are involved in terrorism. Mr. Abaaoud, this official said, had also been in contact with Ismaël Omar Mostefaï, one of the Paris attackers. Mr. Abaaoud also knew another attacker, Ibrahim Abdeslam; they were tried together in 2010 in Belgium for a minor offense.
The United States has given support to the French airstrikes on the Islamic State stronghold in Raqqa, Syria, but President Obama on Monday again ruled out a ground intervention. “Let’s assume that we were to send 50,000 troops into Syria,” he said at a gathering of leaders of the Group of 20 industrial and emerging-market economies in Antalya, Turkey. “What happens when there’s a terrorist attack generated from Yemen? Do we then send troops into there? Or Libya, perhaps?” President François Hollande of France, addressing a rare joint session of Parliament in Versailles, urged lawmakers to extend for three months the state of emergency he declared after the attacks on Friday night. That designation allows the government to strip the citizenship of French natives who are convicted of terrorism and hold a second passport.
Across France and Belgium, the authorities raced to track down suspects and chase leads. Declaring that “France is at war,” he said the attacks had been “planned in Syria, organized in Belgium, perpetrated on our soil with French complicity.”
French officials conducted sweeping police raids around the country overnight, detaining 23 people. He described Syria as “the biggest factory of terrorists the world has ever known,” and said France would continue the airstrikes it launched on Sunday night against Islamic State strongholds in Syria.
In Belgium, heavily armed police officers wearing balaclavas descended on the Molenbeek neighborhood in Brussels early Monday in an unsuccessful search for Salah Abdeslam, 26, who is believed to have helped carry out the Paris terrorist attacks. The French authorities said on Monday that they had conducted 168 raids across the country in an effort to root out possible terrorist threats. The raids extended from the Paris region to the major cities of Lille, Lyon, Marseille and Toulouse, they said. They also said they had arrested 23 people and detained 104 others under house arrest.
The raid ended after more than three hours. Mr. Abdeslam remains at large. His brother Ibrahim was one of the attackers who died in Paris. A third brother, Mohamed, and four other men who had been detained were released on Monday. But a Frenchman believed to be involved in the Paris attacks, Salah Abdeslam, 26, a brother of Ibrahim Abdeslam, remained at large, eluding a series of raids conducted by the authorities in Molenbeek, the working-class Brussels neighborhood where the brothers lived.
At noon, France observed a moment of silence in honor of the victims of the attack, which killed 129 and injured about 350 others. The Métro and cars stopped and crowds gathered at a makeshift memorial at the Place de la République and at the Eiffel Tower. Mr. Hollande stood with students at the Sorbonne. Many recited the national anthem, “La Marseillaise,” after the moment passed. In other cities — Delhi, Doha and Dublin — crowds gathered at French Embassies to pay their respect. A third brother, Mohamed, and four other men who had been detained in Belgium were released on Monday. At a news conference in Brussels, Mohamed said he did not know Salah’s whereabouts and added, “My parents are under shock and have not yet grasped what has happened.”
As the country observed its second of three days of national mourning, law-enforcement operations continued. The alleged architect of the plot, Mr. Abaaoud, who traveled to Syria last year and even persuaded his 13-year-old brother to join him there, is from the same neighborhood, Molenbeek, as the Abdeslam brothers.
Under a state of emergency that Mr. Hollande declared on Friday, the police are empowered to conduct raids without a search warrant, and Bernard Cazeneuve, the interior minister, said 168 such raids had taken place in 19 French departments, including the Paris region and in Lille, Lyon, Marseille and Toulouse. The police arrested 23 people and confiscated 19 weapons, including 19 handguns, eight long guns and four heavy weapons, as well as computer hardware, cellphones and narcotics. Another 104 people were placed under house arrest. Mr. Abaaoud was already a suspect, according to officials and local news reports, in a failed terrorist plot in Belgium in January and an attempt in August to gun down passengers on a high-speed train to Paris from Brussels. The official said the authorities feared he might be in Europe.
In one home in the Rhône department, Mr. Cazeneuve said, the police found a Kalashnikov assault rifle, three automatic pistols, ammunition and bulletproof vests. Officers obtained a warrant to search the home of the parents of one suspect, where they found several automatic pistols, ammunition, police armbands, military clothing and a rocket launcher. At noon, France observed a moment of silence in honor of the victims of the attack, which killed 129 and wounded about 350 others. The Métro and cars stopped and crowds gathered at a makeshift memorial at the Place de la République and at the Eiffel Tower. Mr. Hollande stood with students at the Sorbonne. Many recited the national anthem, “La Marseillaise,” after the moment passed. In other cities — Delhi, Doha and Dublin — crowds gathered at French embassies to pay their respect.
Mr. Cazeneuve said that the investigation on the attacks in Paris was “making quick progress” but that the threat of terrorist attacks “remains high.” Six attacks on French territory have been foiled or avoided since the spring, Mr. Cazeneuve said. As France observed its second of three days of national mourning, the authorities in both France and Belgium raced to track down suspects and chase leads.
“We are using all the possibilities given to us by the state of emergency, that is to say administrative raids, 24 hours a day,” Prime Minister Manuel Valls said in an interview on RTL radio on Monday. He vowed to keep intense pressure on “radical Islamism, Salafist groups, all those who preach hatred of the Republic.” At one house in the Rhône department in the southeast, around Lyon, the police found a Kalashnikov assault rifle, three automatic pistols, ammunition and bulletproof vests. Officers then obtained a warrant to search the home of the parents of a man who lived in the house, where they found several automatic pistols, ammunition, police armbands, military clothing and a rocket launcher.
The authorities also confirmed on Monday that one of the terrorists who struck Paris on Friday evening had entered Europe through Greece on a Syrian passport last month, providing new evidence that the attackers used the flow of hundreds of thousands of migrants to further their plot. Prime Minister Manuel Valls and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve promised to keep up the search.
The Paris prosecutor, François Molins, said in a statement that the man — identified on his passport as Ahmad al-Mohammad, 25, a native of Idlib, Syria — was one of the men who blew himself up outside the Stade de France on Friday night, where the French and German national soccer teams were playing, with Mr. Hollande in attendance. The passport was found at the scene. “We are using all the possibilities given to us by the state of emergency, that is to say administrative raids, 24 hours a day,” Mr. Valls said, vowing to keep intense pressure on “radical Islamism, Salafist groups, all those who preach hatred of the Republic.”
Mr. Molins said the suicide bomber’s fingerprints were consistent with those recorded at a border check in Greece last month — but that additional verification was needed. The Greek authorities said that the holder of the passport passed through the island of Leros on Oct. 3, and the Serbian authorities said he passed through the border town of Presovo on Oct. 7, after entering from Macedonia. It remains unclear if the passport was authentic. The authorities also confirmed on Monday that one of the attackers had entered Europe through Greece on a Syrian passport last month, posing as a migrant.
The nearly unchecked flow of migrants into Europe from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and other countries had already provoked a political backlash before the Paris attacks, and word that one of the bombers had embedded himself in the flow of people crossing the Continent with minimal security checks could create further pressure to close borders and be less welcoming to migrants. The man was identified on his passport — found at the soccer stadium north of Paris where he blew himself up on Friday night — as Ahmad al-Mohammad, 25, a native of Idlib, Syria. The holder of the passport passed through the Greek island of Leros on Oct. 3 and the Serbian border town of Presovo on Oct. 7, according to Greek and Serbian officials. It remained unclear if the passport was authentic.
Mr. Molins also identified another assailant, Samy Amimour, who blew himself up at the Bataclan concert hall, where 89 people were killed on Friday. Mr. Amimour, 28, was born in Paris and lived in Drancy, a suburb of the city, the statement said. All told, at least four French citizens were among the seven attackers. Ibrahim Abdeslam; Mr. Mostefaï, who met with the suspected planner of the attacks; and two men identified on Monday as Samy Amimour, 28, a Paris native who lived in the suburb of Drancy, and Bilal Hadfi, 20, who lived in Brussels.
Mr. Molins said that Mr. Amimour was known to the French authorities, having been charged in October 2012 with criminal terrorist conspiracy, after a plan to leave for Yemen that was not carried out, the statement said. Mr. Amimour was placed under judicial supervision but violated the terms of that supervision in the fall of 2013, prompting the authorities to put out an international arrest warrant. Mr. Amimour was known to the French authorities, having been charged in October 2012 with terrorist conspiracy, according to the authorities. He was placed under judicial supervision but violated the terms of that supervision in the fall of 2013, prompting the authorities to put out an international arrest warrant.
Last December, Le Monde had interviewed Mr. Amimour’s father — it did not publish his family’s name at the time — who went to Syria to try to bring back his son. Last December, the French newspaper Le Monde had interviewed Mr. Amimour’s father — it did not identify him by name at the time — who had gone to Syria to try to bring back his son. Three members of the Amimour family were detained on Monday.
Three members of Mr. Amimour’s family were arrested on Monday morning and are currently in police custody, the statement said. The Turkish government confirmed on Monday that Mr. Mostefaï, 29, had entered Turkey in 2013 but said “there is no record of him leaving the country.”
“We are at war against terrorism,” Mr. Valls said, warning that new attacks were possible in the coming weeks or days. A senior Turkish official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the government flagged Mr. Mostefaï twice — in December 2014 and again in June of this year — but that “we have, however, not heard back from France on the matter.” He added, “It was only after the Paris attacks that the Turkish authorities received an information request about Ismaël Omar Mostefaï from France.”
Mr. Valls did not describe the raids or mention any arrests, but Mr. Cazeneuve was scheduled to give a statement later on Monday morning. The official added that “this is not a time to play the blame game” but added that governments needed to do better at sharing intelligence to prevent terrorism.
Mr. Hollande has blamed the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, for the attacks. On Sunday night and Monday morning, France unleashed a retaliatory strike against the group’s headquarters in Raqqa, Syria. The French Defense Ministry said its warplanes had dropped at least 20 bombs on a series of Islamic State targets, including an ammunitions depot and a training camp. The United States has provided logistical support for the French airstrikes in Syria, but President Obama on Monday again ruled out a ground intervention. “Let’s assume that we were to send 50,000 troops into Syria,” he said at a gathering of leaders of the Group of 20 industrial and emerging-market economies in Antalya, Turkey. “What happens when there’s a terrorist attack generated from Yemen? Do we then send troops into there? Or Libya, perhaps?”
“This attack was organized, planned and conceived from Syria,” Mr. Valls told RTL radio, referring to the Paris attacks. Elsewhere in Europe, the authorities tightened security. Britain on Monday announced that it would pay for an additional 1,900 intelligence officers, and review aviation security, as part of its response to the attacks.
The Turkish government confirmed on Monday that Mr. Mostefaï, 29, a French citizen who died in the Paris attacks — entered Turkey in 2013 but that “there is no record of him leaving the country.” The home secretary, Theresa May, said there would be tighter surveillance of those arriving in Britain and that border guards were making targeted checks of passengers and vehicles leaving for France.
A senior Turkish official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the government flagged Mr. Mostefaï twice — in December 2014 and again in June of this year — but that “we have, however, not heard back from France on the matter.” He added: “It was only after the Paris attacks that the Turkish authorities received an information request about Ismaël Omar Mostefaï from France.” Prime Minister David Cameron, who like Mr. Obama attended the Group of 20 meeting, said he would consider speeding up the legislative timetable for a proposed law to govern electronic surveillance by the intelligence agencies, though he added that it was important to bring Parliament and public support with him.
The official added that “this is not a time to play the blame game” but added that governments need to do better at sharing intelligence to prevent terrorism. In Washington, John O. Brennan, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said on Monday that both the Paris attacks and the crash of a Russian jet over the Sinai Peninsula bore the “hallmarks” of the Islamic State.
Elsewhere in Europe, the authorities tightened security. Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Mr. Brennan called the group an “association of murderous sociopaths” that is “not going to content itself with violence inside the Syrian and Iraqi borders.”
Britain on Monday announced that it would pay for an additional 1,900 intelligence officers, and review aviation security, as part of its response to the attacks.
Extra resources will be found to finance more staff at MI5, which deals with internal security; at MI6, its foreign intelligence agency; and at Government Communications Headquarters, which conducts electronic surveillance, the office of Prime Minister David Cameron said.
The home secretary, Theresa May, said the police were “intensifying their presence” in cities and at certain locations and large events. She said there would be tighter surveillance of those arriving in Britain and that border guards were making targeted checks of passengers and vehicles leaving for France.
Speaking from Turkey, where he was attending the Group of 20 meeting, Mr. Cameron also said he would consider speeding up the legislative timetable for a proposed law to govern electronic snooping by the intelligence agencies, though he added that it was important to bring Parliament and public support with him.
John O. Brennan, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said on Monday that both the Paris attacks and the crash of a Russian jet over the Sinai Peninsula bore the “hallmarks” of the Islamic State.
Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, Mr. Brennan called the group an “association of murderous sociopaths,” that is “not going to content itself with violence inside the Syrian and Iraqi borders.”
Wading into the debate over surveillance, privacy and encryption, Mr. Brennan said he hoped the Paris attacks would be a “wake-up call,” adding “hand-wringing” had weakened the ability of Western intelligence services to prevent attacks.Wading into the debate over surveillance, privacy and encryption, Mr. Brennan said he hoped the Paris attacks would be a “wake-up call,” adding “hand-wringing” had weakened the ability of Western intelligence services to prevent attacks.