[Abdelhamid Abaaoud - Courtesy of Terror Monitor Twitter]
Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the 27-year-old mastermind of terrorist attacks in Paris last Friday, was found dead after French SWAT team raided an apartment located in St-Denis, Thursday. The apartment located at the northern suburban area of Paris was the Islamic State (IS, formerly known as ISIS or ISIL) terrorist’s hideout.
The raid went on for hours. After intense firefights, three were killed, eight detained.
The raid raised world’s attention on whether Abaaoud was in the apartment or not, but the prosecutors did not clarify. After much waiting, French government confirmed that Abaaoud was at the apartment at the time of the raid and was killed during firefights.
Abaaoud’s body was mangled with bullets and shrapnel to a point which French authorities had to identify him by matching fingerprints and skin samples. During the raid, a woman detonated a suicide vest. Some French officials identified the woman as Abaaoud’s cousin.
But contrary to a fact that the raid was successful, The French government is likely to be criticized for being lack of intelligence. According to French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeuve, the officials were told on Monday – three days after coordinated attacks in Paris, 129 people dead and over 300 wounded – that Abaaoud was sighted in Greece. The information came from “outside of Europe,” Cazeuve said.
France is under the state of emergency since the attacks and is likely to be extended three more months. The state of emergency expands police powers to arrest, carry out searches and take other measures without a warrant if a threat is expected.
아주경제 박세진 기자 = swatchsjp@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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