Story highlights
- Police kill one terrorist, another blows herself up, CNN affiliate reports
- A series of explosions is heard in the area
- Police have cordoned off the zone where suspects are holed up
Saint-Denis, France (CNN)A
major police operation is underway in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis
against suspects linked to the deadly terrorist attacks that rocked the
French capital five days ago, officials say. The targets of the raid are
believed to include the purported mastermind of the attacks.
Latest developments:
• 2:16 a.m. ET: Two
terrorists were killed in the raid and one is still holed up in a
building alive, CNN affiliate BFMTV reported. One of the terrorists was
shot by a police sniper, and the second was a woman who blew herself up
with a suicide vest, the broadcaster reported. A civilian passerby was
killed during the operation and at least three police were wounded in
the raid, it said.
• 2:08 a.m. ET:
Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks, is
one of the potential targets of the operation, a senior Belgian
counterterrorism official told CNN. The official cautioned that French
and Belgian authorities weren't certain that Abaaoud was at the location
when they launched the raid in search of high priority targets.
• 1:32 a.m. ET:
A series of explosions is heard in the area. It wasn't immediately
clear whether the blasts were controlled explosions carried out by
authorities.
• 12:39 a.m. ET:
An unspecified number of suspects have been cornered in a building in
the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, Mayor Didier Paillard said in an
interview on French television early Wednesday.
•
Police and soldiers have cordoned off the zone and all public
transportation in the area has been halted. Residents have been warned
to stay inside.
Full story:
Witnesses
have reported gunfire amid a police raid in the northern Paris suburb
of Saint-Denis as authorities hunt for two suspects from Friday's deadly
terrorist attacks who are believed to be at large.
Police
blocked off roads early Wednesday in Saint-Denis, which is home to the
Stade de France sports stadium where three suicide bombings took place
Friday.
CNN affiliate BFMTV reported that police officers have been wounded by gunfire during a raid seeking one of the suspects in the wave of violence across Paris, which killed at least 129 people and wounded hundreds more.
French police wouldn't comment on whether any officers had been shot in the Saint-Denis operation.
BFMTV
reported that the police raid was linked to the hunt for the so-called
"ninth suspect," who may appear in a video recorded by a witness to the
attacks.
Police have been analyzing
the video, which shows two gunmen inside a black car linked to the
attacks and perhaps a third individual driving the car, French media
reported.
Seven of the attackers were
killed during the wave of violence Friday night, and an international
arrest warrant is already out for one suspect, Salah Abdeslam, a 26-year-old Frenchman. The identity of the possible ninth suspect is unknown.
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Brother urges suspect to surrender
Abdeslam's
older brother has urged the suspect, who was last seen driving toward
the Belgian border hours after the attacks, to turn himself over to
authorities.
"I would tell him to
surrender. That's the best solution," Mohamed Abdeslam told CNN's Erin
Burnett on Tuesday. "But of course, if he has something to do with it,
he must accept responsibility."
9 photos: Paris attack suspects: What we know
In
their push to unravel the attack plot and the suspected network behind
it, counterterrorism and intelligence officials say investigators have
uncovered a clue that could be a big break: cell phones believed to
belong to the attackers.
According to
the officials, one of the phones contained a message, sent sometime
before the attacks began, to the effect of: OK, we're ready.
"It
points to a sort of organization," CNN terrorism analyst Paul
Cruickshank said, "an attempt to try to synchronize what was going
down."
But cracking into their communication won't be easy.
Investigators
have found encrypted apps on the phones, which appear to have left no
trace of messages or any indication of who would have been receiving
them, according to officials briefed on the French investigation.
'These are not regular people'
Mohamed Abdeslam said the last time he saw his brothers was about a week ago.
"They left without saying goodbye," he said.
Now
one of them is a wanted fugitive. And authorities say another Abdeslam
brother, Ibrahim, 31, was among the seven terrorists who either killed
themselves or were killed by police in a series of coordinated attacks
across the French capital on Friday night that killed at least 129
people and wounded hundreds more.
32 photos: Paris terror attacks
Mohamed
Abdeslam told CNN that before the attacks, he'd noticed his brothers
changing and adopting more radical views. He suspects the Internet could
have played a role. But he said his family was shocked by the attack,
and had no idea what they were planning.
"My
brother who participated in this terrorist act must have been
psychologically ready to commit such an act. These are not regular
people," he said. "You cannot have the slightest doubt that they have
been prepared, that they must not leave any trace which would cause
suspicion that they might do such things. And even if you saw them every
day, their behavior was quite normal."
Suspects questioned by Belgian authorities in February
Police
stopped Salah Abdeslam hours after the attacks in a car on his way
toward the Belgian border. They let him go because he apparently hadn't
yet been linked to the terrorist operation.
Both
he and Ibrahim were previously known to authorities: Belgian prosecutor
Eric Van Der Sypt told CNN's Ivan Watson that police questioned the
Abdeslam brothers in February.
What we know about the Paris terror attacks suspects 02:33
"Ibrahim
tried to go to Syria and was sent back by the Turks in the beginning of
2015," Van Der Sypt said. "It was after that that we questioned him."
Both brothers were released, the federal prosecutor said, after they denied wanting to go to Syria.
He
said Belgian authorities were also trying to keep an eye on Bilal
Hadfi, one of the suicide bombers who struck outside the Stade de
France, according to several sources. "We knew (Hadfi) was in Syria,"
Van Der Sypt said. "But what we didn't know is apparently he was back,
as he blew himself up in Paris. But we had no knowledge of the fact
that he was back in Europe."
'At war' and launching airstrikes
Declaring the country is "at war," French President Francois Hollande has proposed extending the state of emergency for a further three months, along with sweeping new anti-terrorism laws.
Security
forces conducted more than 128 new raids around the country overnight,
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Tuesday during a radio
interview.
Why did ISIS target France?
Meanwhile, outside the country, French warplanes have launched wave after wave of airstrikes on ISIS' de facto capital of Raqqa in northern Syria, and a major Belgian police operation was conducted Monday in the Abdeslams' home base in Molenbeek, a Brussels suburb with a history of links to Islamist terror plots.
Belgian
authorities say two men detained over the weekend in Molenbeek in
connection with the attacks are now under arrest for "attempted
terrorism and participation in the activities of a terrorist group."
Tracking the suspected mastermind
Before
the Paris attacks, France and its allies had tried to target a
prominent ISIS member who is believed to have planned the assault on the
French capital, a French source close to the investigation said.
Western intelligence agencies had attempted to track Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian citizen thought to be in Syria, but they weren't able to locate him, the source told CNN on Tuesday.
Abaaoud
had been implicated in the planning of a number of terrorist attacks
and conspiracies in Western Europe before the Paris attacks.
Believed to be close to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, he was linked to a plan to attack Belgian police
that was thwarted in January. He has since been featured in ISIS'
online English-language magazine. His current whereabouts are unknown.
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