Paris attacks: Hunt turns towards ‘The Executioner’

A French jihadist known as “the Executioner” is under suspicion for planning the Paris attacks from Syria.

Salim Benghalem

A prominent French jihadi known as “the Executioner” is under suspicion for planning and co-­ordinating the Paris attacks from Syria.

The death of Abdelhamid Abaaoud by sniper fire and grenade ­attack at Saint-Denis on Wed­nes­day has eliminated only one well-organised cell of a multi-pronged terror campaign, France believes.

Middle East experts say the co-ordination of the Paris attacks, the training and the detailed plans indicated they were worked out in Syria and have pointed the finger at Salim Benghalem, a prominent French jihadi known as “the ­Executioner’’.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has warned of the potential for chemical and biological attacks, and ­demanded immediate strict border checks and pan-­European ­intelligence-sharing.

“The macabre imagination of the masterminds is limitless,” Mr Valls told parliament as laws allowing a three-month state of emergency in the country were passed.

Raid in Saint-Denis

Benghalem, originally from the southern Paris suburb of Cachan, is on the US target list for his role in the kidnapping and beheading of Western journalists and aid workers; he is also the point man to train French jihadis arriving in Syria.

The 35-year-old grew up with the Charlie Hebdo attackers Cherif and Said Kouachi and learned his skills in the Buttes-Chaumont militant network fighting in Iraq against the US.

Officials believe the co-ordination of the Paris attacks across multiple targets came directly from the top of Islamic State jihadis and someone of Benghalem’s elite status among the group would have conceived of the plan and trained the attackers.

French police said it was a tip-off from Morocco, and surveillance of the phone belonging to Abaaoud’s cousin Hasna Aitboulahcen that gave enough information to move in and kill Abaaoud five days after he orchestrated the deaths of 129 people enjoying a Friday night out in Paris.

He was in their midst all along, using the cover of the West Balkans migrant trail to slip into France undetected: the route taken by at least two of the suicide bombers returning from Syria, Samy Amimour and the Stade de France bomber with a fake passport in the name of Ahmed Almohamed, 25. His finger­prints have been traced from Greece, through Serbia and Austria.

The US has placed a $US5 million ($6.95m) reward on the head of another Islamic State leader, Tarad Mohammad al-Jarba, whom they believe helped get the attackers to Syria from Turkey. The 35-year-old arranges access through Gaziantep in Turkey, as well as routes to get back into Europe after training.

It is not known exactly which route Abaaoud took in returning the Paris.

“No information coming from European countries, where he could have transited before arriving in France, was given to us,” France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said of Abaaoud.

“It was only on November 16, after the Paris attacks, that an intelligence service outside Europe signalled that it had been aware of his presence in Greece.”

Saliva and fingerprints identified Abaaoud after he had been shot in the head and attacked by grenade fire in the Saint-Denis operation. The other person killed was Aitboulahcen, known as the “cowgirl” for her love of wearing hats and boots and seen on social media sites partying before becoming serious about jihad. Aitboulahcen exploded a suicide vest that was so powerful it destroyed part of the apartment that was the terror cell’s hideout.

Officials in Lille have detained the suspected bombmaker, 19-year-old Mohamed Khoualed.

Worryingly for intelligence agencies, Abaaoud had apparently orchestrated the devastation across Paris from within the city he was seeking to destroy. He co-­ordinated the three groups that attacked the Bataclan, the cafes and the Stade de France and was on the verge of overseeing another mass attack in the La Defense commercial district, yet French officials had believed he was in Syria.

Mr Cazeneuve said French intelligence knew Abaaoud had left for Syria last year and had attributed four of the six foiled terror ­attacks in France to his planning. He quickly became one of the most effective propagandists for Islamic State and last year returned to his home in Molenbeek, Brussels, to recruit his 13-year-old brother. Abaaoud, sentenced in absentia to 20 years’ jail for recruiting for Islamic State, boasted he had been able to travel freely between Syria and Belgium without raising suspicion.

“He was a little jerk,’’ a former classmate told Brussels newspaper La Derniere Heure, describing him as a bully who would steal wallets.

Police are still trying to find the missing eighth terrorist, Salah Abdeslam, and released a picture of him in disguise, saying he may be using the name Yassine Baghli. A friend of Abdeslam says the gunman believed things had gone too far and he was now on the run from Islamic State as well as from European police forces .