Paris attacks: Rocket launcher seized in sweeping raids

Anti-­terrorism police carried out more than 150 raids across France and Belgium yesterday.

Anti-­terrorism police carried out more than 150 raids across France and Belgium yesterday, intensifying their efforts to flush out the ­nation’s most wanted man, Salah Abde­slam, one of three brothers ­involved in the mass slaughter of Parisians last Friday night.

The French National Police RAID and GIPN units stormed housing blocks in the Paris suburb of Bobigny and conducted raids in Lyon, Grenoble, Toulouse, Calais and Jeumont, near the Belgian border, under the cover of pre-dawn darkness. Twenty-three people were arrested and another 104 confined to house arrest.

In Lyon, a raid uncovered a rocket launcher, Kalashnikovs and other weapons.

French prosecutors last night identified two of the assailants, Ahmad al-Mohammad and Samy Amimour, while the identity of a third, Bilal Hadfi, also emerged yesterday. Police matched the ­remains of a suicide bomber at the Stade de France with the fingerprints of a person who in October was registered by Greek authorities as a refugee, the Paris prosecutors’ ­office said.

A Syrian passport in the name of al-Mohammad, a 25-year-old born in Idlib, Syria, was found at the stadium, although the ­authenticity of the passport was still to be verified.

Prosecutors have also confirmed the identity of one of the ­attackers at the Bataclan concert hall, where at least 89 people were killed.

Amimour, 28, was born in Paris and had been ­investigated for links to terror groups in Yemen in 2012. He had attempted to travel there, but had been stopped by the authorities.

As a nervous Paris went back to work yesterday, Prime Minister Manuel Valls acknowledged the country had been given a general warning of an “imminent attack’’ 24 hours before Friday night’s atrocities in which 129 died, and he said further ­attacks were planned.

“We know operations were being prepared and are still being prepared, not only against France but other European countries too,” he said on RTL radio.

“We are making use of the legal framework of the state of emergency to question people who are part of the radical jihadist movement ... and all those who advocate hate of the republic.

“Terrorism may strike us again in the days and weeks to come. I don’t want to scare people, but to warn them. We will keep living for a long time with the terrorist threat.”

France and Belgium have joined investigations to track down what they believe to be about 20 members of the terror cell that organised the “act of war’’, including Salah Abdeslam, who has been identified as the eighth terrorist. His older brother, Ibrahim, was one of the seven suicide bombers; ­another brother, Mohammed, was involved in the planning and was one of seven ­arrested in Brussels yesterday.

French Interior Minister ­Bernard Cazeneuve said “those in Belgium who prepared the attacks were not known to the French intelligence services” and the attacks were “planned from abroad”.

Investigators know that two cars involved in the attack were rented in Brussels. A third car ­driven by Salah Abdeslam was found in Brussels and two of the ­attackers were French nationals living in the Belgian capital. They are hunting the bomb-maker who prepared identical vests for all of the killers using the most deadly and highly volatile chemicals.

French intelligence and policing agencies have come under scrutiny for allowing Salah ­Abdeslam through a border check at Cambrai several hours after the attacks and failing to detect such a well-planned and co-ordinated atrocity.

Police only realised their error when a VW Polo registered to Salah Abdeslam was found outside the Bataclan concert venue. The 26-year-old was in a car with two other people and had his identity checked at the border, but was allowed through.

Iraqi intelligence had last Thursday passed on details of an imminent attack involving 24 people, of whom five were involved in planning and logistics, and warned France was the target. French authorities say they receive many such tip offs.

The Iraqi dispatch said Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had ordered followers to immediately launch attacks, they said. The warning said the attackers were sent back to France from Raqqa.

The first team struck at the Stade de France, with the initial explosion at 9.20pm near gate H. Ten minutes later, the second suicide bomber unleashed his attack near gate A at the stadium.

The third bomber, believed to be Hadfi, a Belgian who had recently returned from fighting in Syria, was turned away by security. He struck at 9.53pm about 400m from the stadium.

The second team of three bombers, including Omar Mostefai, 29, a French national of Algerian descent, attacked the Bataclan at 9.40pm.