The ringleader behind the deadly Paris terror attacks and another Islamist militant were planning to blow themselves up in a suicide attack in Paris’ La Defense business district, the chief Paris prosecutor confirmed on Tuesday.
Mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud was among three killed last Wednesday during a siege involving more than 100 heavily armed anti-terror cops in Saint-Denis, ultimately thwarting the planned attack.
The Belgian-born ISIS jihadist and an unidentified suspect were planning a follow-up attack in the district in western Paris either Nov. 18 or Nov. 19, less than a week after the Nov. 13 massacre that left 130 people dead and 350 others injured.
La Defense is home to some of France’s biggest companies, prosecutor Francois Molins said Tuesday.
Police sources said that the militants were targeting the Quatre Temps shopping center and the main square of the district.
Meanwhile, President Obama stood side by side with French President Francois Hollande at the White House and declared the attacks on Paris to be “an attack against the world itself” — as both men vowed to expand the campaign against ISIS and urged Russia to start playing a constructive role.
With Belgium still in lockdown as authorities hunt down more of the friends involved in the Paris attacks, Hollande said at a joint press conference that he and Obama had agreed to “scale up our strikes both in Syria and in Iraq” and “broaden their scope.”
Obama said that ISIS “cannot be tolerated — it must be destroyed.” He vowed to “deliver justice to those terrorists and those who sent them and to defend our nations.”
Obama said even before the attacks he had met with his security team to forge a plan to “accelerate and advance the pressure that we can place on ISIL,” using one of the alternate names for ISIS.
Neither leader outlined major new specific steps that the alliance would undertake.
“As Americans, we stand by our friends in good times and in bad, no matter what,” Obama said.
The press conference was held just hours after NATO-member Turkey shot down a Russian military aircraft.
“Turkey, like every country, has a right to defend its territory and its airspace,” Obama said.
He didn’t say anything definitive about whether the Russian plane had encroached on Turkey’s airspace, but said the US would be able to confirm it “through our own intelligence.”
“We’re still getting the details of what happened,” he said.
But Obama did appear to back up Turkey and caution Russia when he said, “They are operating very close to a Turkish border and they are going after moderate opposition that are supported not only by Turkey but a wide range of countries.”
Some of Russia’s targets have been US-backed rebels.
With Post Wires