A Belgian national linked to two other terror attacks in France is believed to be the mastermind behind the carnage in Paris.
Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 27, grew up in Brussels but later traveled to Syria, where he became “one of the most active ISIS executioners” and even recruited his 13-year-old brother to wage jihad with him, according to RTL Radio in France.
He’s been linked to the August attack on a Paris-bound train and another thwarted assault on a church near the French capital.
“He appears to be the brains behind several planned attacks in Europe,” a source told Reuters
In July, Abaaoud was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison for being the brains behind an Islamist cell that was plotting to launch attacks against the Belgian police, according to the AFP.
Salim Benghalem, a French national, allegedly orchestrated the Paris attacks with him, NPR reported Monday.
In other fast moving developments:
- Speaking at the G20 summit, President Obama insisted it would be “a mistake” to send troops to fight a ground war against ISIS.“If the US sent 50,000 troops into Syria, what would happen if an attack originated in Yemen or Libya?” he asked.
Obama added that all Syrian refugees who’ve entered the US were subjected to a “rigorous screening process.”
- President Hollande addressed parliament at Versailles, saying a bill to extend the state of emergency by three months will be introduced Wednesday.”France is at war,” he said, adding that he will meet with President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss strategy against ISIS.
Hollande also called for “coordinated and systematic controls” of the European Union’s borders.
“If Europe does not control its external borders, then it’s back to national borders,” he warned. “This would be the dismantling of the European Union.”
- ISIS released a new propaganda video Monday, threatening to attack Washington and all nations involved in air strikes against Syria.”We say to the states that take part in the crusader campaign that, by God, you will have a day, God willing, like France’s and by God, as we struck France in the center of its abode in Paris, then we swear that we will strike America at its center in Washington,” a man identified as Al Ghareeb the Algerian said in the video.
- Police commissioner Bill Bratton said New York City could see a coordinated series of terrorist attacks similar to the ones in Paris — and announced that he plans to add an additional 500 cops to counter terrorism duties.“We work everyday based on the premise that [terrorists] have that capability,” Bratton told MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “And what we just saw in Paris, why do we think that that would not happen here?”
- Authorities arrested 23 people during 168 overnight raids. A rocket launcher, flack jackets, several pistols and a Kalashnikov assault rifle were also recovered during the searches.Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve added that an additional 104 people have been put under house arrest as a result of the sweeping raids.
“Let this be clear to everyone, this is just the beginning, these actions are going to continue,” Cazeneuve said.
Two of the seven people detained in Belgium on Saturday are being held on terrorism charges, Belgian federal prosecutors said.
- A 39-year-old Algerian who was arrested in a German refugee shelter on Saturday allegedly told Syrian asylum seekers last Sunday or Monday that bombs would go off in Paris four days later, according to the AFP. Prosecutors are now investigating the claims, which were made by two Syrian men who called the police on Saturday.Authorities conducted a major operation in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek in hopes of finding Salah Abdeslam, one of three brothers involved in the attacks. There were no arrests made, according to RTBF.
Another one of the brothers, Mohamed Abdeslam, who was arrested on Saturday, was released without being charged today.
His lawyer, Nathalie Galant, told RTBF, “He had a solid alibi: he was in Herstal whole of last Friday evening.”
“[Abdeslam] hadn’t made the same choices in life,” she explained to RTL Radio.
- On Sunday night, French fighter jets struck a command center, recruitment center for jihadists, a munitions depot and a training camp for fighters during an operation.“The raid … including 10 fighter jets, was launched simultaneously from the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. Twenty bombs were dropped,” the defense ministry said in a statement.
Two jihadi sites in Raqqa were ultimately destroyed.
“The first target destroyed was used by Daesh [an alternative name for Isis] as a command post, jihadist recruitment centre and arms and munitions depot. The second held a terrorist training camp,” the statement said.
- The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq both held moments of silence at 9:25 a.m. Monday in honor of the 129 victims.
- During a “Global Security Forum” in Washington, CIA Director John Brennan said today that the attacks were “deliberately and carefully planned over the course of what I think is a few months.”“I would anticipate that this is not the only operation that ISIL has in the pipeline,” he added.
- One survivor of the massacre inside the Bataclan theater told the BBC he only made it out alive because of his prosthetic leg. Grégoire Philonenko said one of the gunmen kicked his leg a couple of times, but he didn’t flinch, so the terrorist moved on.
- The boyfriend of the South African woman whose tale of making it out of the Bataclan theater alive went viral told his own version of the story.“It wasn’t a scene of war, it was a slaughterhouse,” Amaury Baudoin wrote in a long Facebook post in French Monday along with a picture of him holding his Eagles of Death Metal ticket. “There were bodies everywhere.”
- Hacker group Anonymous vowed to wage war against ISIS in a video posted to YouTube.”Expect massive cyber attacks. War is declared. Get prepared,” a spokesperson wearing a Guy Fawkes mask says in French. “Anonymous from all over the world will hunt you down. You should know that we will find you and we will not let you go. We will launch the biggest operation ever against you.”