Paris attacks: Paris mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud killed in raids
New details emerge about the woman who blew herself up during raids which killed the Paris attacks mastermind.
Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the mastermind of last Friday’s Paris attacks that killed 129 people, has been confirmed dead as more details emerge about the woman who was with him during the Saint-Denis raids, now named as Hasna Ait Boulahcen.
You can catch up on how yesterday’s events unfolded here, and we’ll update this story throughout the day with fresh developments.
1.00pm: New pictures of ‘blonde bomber’
Hasna Ait Boulahcen, named as the woman believed to have blown herself up during the police raid that killed the suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks, swapped her party-girl persona for that of an Islamist radical just months before her death.
Boulahcen’s story is that of a young woman from a broken home with an unstable disposition (see below), who was nicknamed “Cowgirl” because of her penchant for cowboy hats before her dramatic conversion to radical Islam. New pictures have emerged of Boulahcen wearing a cowboy hat from her Facebook page.
11am: Suicide bomber was a party girl
The former construction worker who detonated her suicide bomb belt in the siege of Saint-Denis was once a heavy-drinking teenage tomboy from the slums of Paris with no interest in the Koran, write John Simpson and Adam Sage in The Times.
Hasna Aitboulahcen (now being named as Hasna Ait Boulahcen), 26, who was born in Paris of Moroccan descent, was far from the typical Islamist woman. As a teenager, she smoked and went clubbing and hung around with drug dealers.
She started wearing a full face veil less than a year ago. You can read the full story about Aitboulahcen here.
12.15pm: One in seven IS recruits are women
One in seven Islamic State recruits is now female, drawn to war zones not just by propaganda that depicts foreign fighters as pin-ups, but also by family ties, writes Fiona Hamilton in The Times.
Unprecedented numbers of western women are heading to the so-called caliphate, according to researchers at a US think tank. Read more on this story and why the term ‘jihadi bride’ is unhelpful, here.
8.24am: ‘Blonde bomber’ was under surveillance
Hasna Aitboulahcen lived a secular life, drinking alcohol and rarely visiting a mosque, but police say she died an extremist’s death: blowing herself up by detonating a suicide vest.
The 26-year-old daughter of a Moroccan immigrant had been under police surveillance because her name came up in a drug-trafficking case, said a police union official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorised to talk to media.
Aitboulahcen died on Wednesday as police closed in on an apartment in suburban Saint-Denis, along with Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the man suspected of orchestrating the November 13 attacks across Paris that killed 129 people. It was not known if she had any role in the attacks.
Also unclear is her exact connection to the 28-year-old Abaaoud, the son of a Moroccan-born shopkeeper in Brussels. Three police officials said Aitboulahcen often described herself as his “cousin,” but the term also is used by young French of North African descent to refer to close friends who are no blood relation.
Her final moments were marked by a brief, angry exchange with police during the siege.
“Where is your boyfriend?” an officer demanded, according to an official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to disclose details of the investigation.
She replied: “He’s not my boyfriend!”
Then there was an explosion, which police said was the detonation of the bomb in her vest.
Parts of her mangled body were blown onto a police car parked outside the apartment where she and nine others, including Abaaoud, engaged in an hours-long standoff.
Born in the Paris suburb of Clichy-la-Garenne, Aitboulahcen moved to the eastern French town of Creutzwald with her parents and four siblings when she was 16.
She had a sister and two brothers, Creutzwald Mayor Jean-Luc Wozniak, told The Associated Press. He added that the four siblings spent some time in foster care, and the family moved into an apartment located in a housing project in 2006.
Some years later Aitboulahcen left Creutzwald and settled in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois, returning occasionally to visit her father, Wozniak said.
Her father, who was born in Marrakech, and her older sister moved to Morocco, the mayor added.
Two years ago, Aitboulahcen briefly managed a construction company based in the Paris suburb of Epinay-sur-Seine that went bankrupt less than 10 months later, according to an official registry of company filings.
Neighbours and relatives quoted by French media said she drank alcohol and rarely attended a mosque.
Because her name came up in a drug-trafficking case, Aitboulahcen was under surveillance, and her movements may have led authorities to the Saint-Denis flat.
Authorities had tapped her phone at the time of the raid, according to two police officials, also speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to media. They did not say when the wiretap began.
9.43am:Survivor to tell of terror on TV
The Australian survivor of the Paris terror attacks it to give an exclusive TV interview about the horror inside the Bataclan Theatre, where 89 people were killed.
Emma Parkinson will speak to 60 Minutes about her ordeal, in which she was shot in the hip.
8.13am: US House votes to suspend refugees
The House of Representatives have voted to ban Syrian and Iraqi refugees from entering the United States until tougher screening measures are in place, a move some slammed as giving in to xenophobia after the Paris attacks.
The Republican legislation, the first congressional response to last week’s attacks, passed overwhelmingly, 289 to 137, with nearly four dozen Democrats going against their president to support the measure.
The bill now heads to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain, but it sets up a clash with President Barack Obama, who has threatened to veto the bill and has criticised Republicans for “hysteria” and falling short of their humanitarian duty to take in the oppressed.
“Being generous does not mean we have to have a weak process for screening refugees,” number two House Republican Kevin McCarthy said before the bill’s passage.
Thursday’s yes votes were one shy of the 290 needed to override a veto if every member votes.
8.09am: France under ‘permanent threat’
Prime Minister Manuel Valls says France is under a “long and permanent threat” after the Paris attacks.
Speaking on French TV, Valls said he “owes the truth” to the French people, stressing that investigators don’t know whether there are other extremist cells that are still “active. It’s probable.”
Valls added that police have conducted 600 raids targeting Islamic extremists since the attacks on a rock concert, Parisian cafes and France’s national stadium.
Valls also said French authorities don’t know if Salah Abdeslam, a fugitive wanted in connection with the attacks, is still in France.
7.18am: France calls on allies
France has circulated a U.N. Security Council draft resolution that calls on all countries to “redouble and co-ordinate their efforts” to prevent further attacks by Islamic State and similar groups and “eradicate the safe haven they have established over significant parts of Iraq and Syria.”
The text, seen by The Associated Press, also condemns the recent attacks by IS - which include the Paris attacks - and urges countries to “intensify their efforts to stem the flow of foreign terrorist fighters to Iraq and Syria.”
Britain, which holds the council presidency, told reporters Thursday that it will prepare a vote on the draft as soon as France wants.
Diplomats are indicating that a separate Russian draft resolution seeking to unite countries against IS will not go forward.
7.07am: Moroccan intelligence helped find ringleader
Moroccan intelligence helped put French investigators on the trail of the Belgian jihadist suspected of orchestrating last week’s deadly attacks in Paris, police sources have said.
A Moroccan tip-off, along with other information, helped police track Abdelhamid Abaaoud to an apartment block in a northern Paris suburb, where he was killed in a raid on Wednesday.
6.52am: Australian security forces working ‘tirelessly’
The federal government says it’s working “tirelessly” with security forces to keep Australia safe in wake of the deadly terror attacks in Paris.
Cabinet minister Christopher Pyne says Islamic State and other terrorist organisations have made it very clear they will strike anywhere, but Australia is not “penny pinching” when it comes to security.
“Of course, there is always the threat of lone wolf attacks in our country like we saw with the Lindt Cafe attack but the government is doing everything it can,” he told the Nine Network on today.
Australian Federal Police commissioner Andrew Colvin said it was important agencies like his had at their disposal the necessary powers to fight terrorism.
Current laws, and proposed legislation to allow control orders to be applied to teens as young as 14, were appropriate - for now. “If we need to update our laws then Australian security agencies will talk to government about that,” he told the Nine Network. Mr Colvin said there was no question Australia had to be vigilant and that our geographical advantage doesn’t mean we should be complacent.
“Distance is no barrier in this scenario,” he added.
“We see around the world - not just in Paris but other attacks recently in Beirut and other parts of the world - the reach of ISIL is far, it is very great and they are able to reach right into bedrooms, lounge rooms of ordinary Australians.”
6.00am:Paris mastermind killed in raids
French officials have confirmed the ringleader of the Paris attacks Abdelhamid Abaaoud was one of the two people killed in the Saint-Denis battle fire – identified by saliva after he had been shot in the head and attacked by grenade fire.
Officials in Lille, Northern France have also detained the man believed to be the bomb maker, 19-year-old Mohamed Khoualed.
But worryingly for intelligence agencies, Abaaoud had apparently orchestrated the devastation across Paris that killed 129 people from within the city he was seeking to destroy. He masterminded the three different groups that attacked the Bataclan, the cafes and the Stade de France and was on the verge of committing another mass attack in the La Defense commercial district and possibly the Charles de Gaulle Airport, police believe.
French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said French intelligence knew Abaaoud had left for Syria in 2014 and they had attributed four of the six foiled terror attacks in France to his planning. He quickly became one of the most effective propagandists for the Islamic State and in 2014 returned to his home in Molenbeek Brussels to recruit his 13 year old brother. Abaaoud boasted he had been able to travel freely between Syria and Belgium without raising suspicion.
But it was only on Monday that France was alerted to clues “from a non-European intelligence agency’’ that Abaaoud had passed through Greece recently.
However several months ago Belgium newspapers reported how Abaaoud – Belgium’s most wanted man - had been staying in a safe house in Athens and was associated with a man who had been running a passport forgery racket, so it is unclear why France was not aware of his links to Greece, the frontline of the Schengen border controls.
But, as with the Stade de France bomber, whose fingerprints match those of a migrant that passed through Greece and Serbia, and Bataclan attacker Samy Amimour, who came through Greece and Belgium, Abaaoud could have easily mingled with the thousands of migrants forging through Europe, especially with a forged passport.
“No information coming from European countries, where he could have transited before arriving in France, was given to us,” Cazeneuve said.
“It was only on November 16, after the Paris attacks, that an intelligence service outside Europe signalled that he had been aware of his presence in Greece.”
Police used phone intercepts and information on the mobile phone discarded outside the Bataclan by one of the gunmen to track down Abaaoud through his links to his 26-year-old cousin Hasna Aitboulahce.
In the Saint-Denis operation Aitboulahce exploded a suicide vest that was so powerful it destroyed part of the apartment that was the terror cell’s hide-out. Cazeneuve said there needed to be urgent co-operation on border control and stopping weapons trafficking.
“Things are not going far enough. Things are not moving fast enough,” Cazeneuve said. “Europe owes it to all the victims of terrorism to act.”
How mastermind was targeted
French prosecutor Francois Molins, speaking before confirmation of the identities of those killed in the raids, said the terrorists who were directly linked to Friday’s attacks had amassed “a war arsenal’’. He described how more than 5000 shots were exchanged throughout the six-hour operation in Saint-Denis.
Intelligence agencies had “cautiously assessed’’ a tip-off that Abaaoud may be in the building and combined that information with phone intercepts and analysis of a mobile phone that was discarded by one of the bombers in a bin outside the most deadly of last Friday’s attacks, the Bataclan concert hall.
When more than 110 of France’s finest anti-terrorism commandos targeted the hide-out, they expected to quickly overcome Abaaoud and two other people, one now known as his cousin, the blonde terror suspect Hasna Aitboulahcen, believed to be inside.
When they set up explosives to blow open the door, they discovered the entry had been reinforced and it failed to yield, giving the terrorists time to gather.
The police had miscalculated the numbers of those inside, and their weaponry, including a large shield that deflected police fire.
By lunchtime, two of the terrorists were killed, eight people had been arrested and five police officers had been injured.
“They were prepared to go to the end,’’ Mr Molins said, detailing how the team had amassed three safe houses, three vehicles and the war arsenal. French President Francois Hollande described the operation as perilous and said the resistance from the terrorists had been underestimated. He said it was a mistake that would not happen again on his watch.
France’s war against Islamic State encompasses a co-ordinated alliance with Washington and Moscow on its stronghold in Syria and Iraq, with the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle moving into position to treble the capacity to launch air strikes. On the domestic front, the battle against extremists is just as intense.
Mr Hollande, a socialist leader, has adopted many more right-wing ideas and has promised 10,000 of the 150,000 soldiers deployed in the capital will be used to monitor activities in the urban ghettos and strict border controls will be introduced.
Mindful of the ease with which Abaaoud appears to have travelled between France, Belgium, Greece and Syria, Mr Hollande has tightened the borders. “We must check before we accept the refugees into our country,” he said. “The rights of the refugees might be refused if they represent a threat to France; we will increase control on our borders while remaining faithful to our borders.’’
Jean-Michel Fauvergue, head of the RAID police unit, told Le Parisian that the first stage of the Saint-Denis operation lasted 45 minutes. “We came under heavy fire from true professionals,’’ he said.
“They fired in bursts or one shot at a time, taking turns so that the gunfire never stopped. That allowed them to save on munitions. They also threw grenades. They were incredibly driven.’’
Some residents on the first floor of the building were trapped.
One resident, known as Christian, who lives opposite the apartment, told Le Parisian that after the initial phase and 15-minute break the gunfire resumed.
“That’s when a woman shouted out of the third floor window, ‘Help, help, help me’,” Christian said. “I heard police officers ask her to identify herself and show herself. She put her hands out (of the window) but did not show her face. She withdrew her hands and showed them again several times. The police shouted at her to put her hands in the air and show them.
“They said they were going to fire. Suddenly there was an enormous explosion. It was probably the woman who blew herself up. The windows shattered. Lots of objects from the apartment were thrown into the street.’’
At this stage, part of the floor of the apartment had collapsed and police found and arrested three people in the rubble.
Two more were arrested in another apartment.
A couple who rented the flat to the terrorists was also detained, but the man, Jawed Ben Dow, said before being led away: “Someone asked me to do them a favour, to put them up for three days.’’
Yesterday French Prime Minister Manuel Valls told French parliament there could be a risk of chemical or biological attacks against the country. “We must not rule anything out. I say it with all the precautions needed. But we know and bear in mind that there is also a risk of chemical or bacteriological weapons,” he said.
With the state of tension in Paris still high, government officials have cancelled all school trips to Paris and advised any international school trips — including those from Australia — to reconsider their itinerary.
— With news wires. All times AEST
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