Paris/Washington: French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said he welcomed the death of “one of the masterminds” of the Paris attacks.
“Abdelhamid Abaaoud has just been formally identified... as having been killed during the raid” the Paris prosecutor’s office said in a statement. Abaaoud was previously thought to be in Syria after fleeing raids to his native Belgium earlier this year.
Meanwhile, US intelligence published a report showing it warned in May that IS was capable of carrying out the kind of large-scale coordinated attacks seen in Paris.
The assessment from the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, in coordination with the FBI, specifically refers to Abaaoud as a ringleader of Belgian plotters and warned Europe was more at risk of attack than the US. Italy was also looking for five suspects after an FBI tip-off about possible jihadist attacks on landmark sites, the foreign minister said.
Download the all new Deccan Chronicle app for Android and iOS to stay up-to-date with latest headlines and news stories in politics, entertainment, sports, technology, business and much more from India and around the world.
