Fate of Paris attacks mastermind unclear after police raid

PARIS – As law enforcement officials fanned out across France and Belgium in search of suspects in the deadly bombings and shootings last week, they raced against a chilling possibility: The Islamist militants behind Europe’s worst terrorist attack in more than a decade might be ready to strike again.

On Wednesday, more than 100 heavily armed police and soldiers descended on an apartment building less than a mile from a stadium targeted in Friday’s rampage and traded blistering fire with militants holed up inside.

The massive, hours-long raid in a densely populated suburb north of Paris took down another terrorist squad that was ready to act, authorities said.

Left unclear was the fate of the raid’s intended target: Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian national of Moroccan descent who is a top external operative for the extremist group Islamic State.

Authorities have described Abaaoud as the likely architect of the attacks that killed at least 129 people and injured hundreds on a night out at cafes and restaurants, a rock concert and a soccer game.

A French prosecutor, Francois Molins, told reporters that Abaaoud was not among eight people taken into custody during the operation in St.-Denis. Neither was a suspected accomplice, Salah Abdeslam.

At least two suspects died during the operation, including a woman who blew herself up with an explosives vest and a person found amid the rubble. But Molins said the fighting was so intense that it would take time to determine whether anyone else was killed and to identify the remains.

A U.S. law enforcement official in Washington, who had been briefed on the operation, said Abaaoud may have been among two suspects who escaped a near-simultaneous raid at another location. But there was no confirmation from French authorities.

The raid, which largely destroyed the three-story apartment house targeted, was launched after authorities received information that Abaaoud might be holed up on the third floor.

Gunfire and explosions reverberated through the neighborhood as SWAT teams descended on the building at 4:20 a.m. The door to the apartment had been reinforced, making it difficult to break down and giving the occupants time to prepare, Molins said.

Police fired more than 5,000 rounds during a gunfight that went on for nearly an hour, he said. The operation ended at midday after a seven-hour siege.

“A new team of terrorists has been neutralized and everything suggests – their armament, their structured organization and their determination – that this commando was ready to act,” Molins said.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks.

French President Francois Hollande has declared that his country is “at war” with the group and promised an all-out offensive against extremism. In Paris, authorities presented a bill to the Council of Ministers to extend for three months the state of emergency that Hollande declared Saturday.