26-year-old French national has been on the run since attacks on French capital in November that left 130 dead
Salah Abdeslam is on the run from police after the Paris attacks in November. Photograph: DSK/AFP/Getty Photograph: DSK/AFP/Getty Images
Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam has been shot and arrested in an ongoing raid in the Molenbeek area of Brussels, Belgian police have told AFP.
Police sources told the news agency that Abdeslam was injured in the leg and was arrested.
French president Franois Hollande said an operation was under way in Brussels linked to the Paris attacks, but could not confirm that Abdeslam had been injured or apprehended. Gunshots and explosions were heard in the Molenbeek area.
The police operation in Molenbeck was launched just as Belgian prosecutors confirmed that Abdeslam’s fingerprints had been found at a flat that was raided in the Forest area of Brussels on Tuesday. Two suspects fled that raid.
Prior to the Molenbeek raid Belgian federal prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt said it had not been established how old the fingerprints were, or how long Abdeslam spent in the apartment.
When French and Belgian police arrived to search the flat on Tuesday, they were met with gunfire from automatic weapons from behind the door. A police sniper shot one of the gunmen through a window, Mohamed Belkad, a 35-year-old Algerian living illegally in Belgium and known to police for a theft case in 2014. “Next to his body was a Kalashnikov, a book on Salafism and an Islamic State flag,” according to Thierry Werts, of the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office.
The Belgian prosecutor’s office said Belkad was “more than likely” one of the key logistics operatives behind the Paris attacks, who had been sought by police under the false name of Samir Bouzid. Le Monde reported that investigators believe a man using the name Samir Bouzid had received the last text message sent by three of the Paris attackers before they staged a bloody gun attack on a rock gig at the Paris Bataclan concert hall. The message said, “We’ve left, we’re on the way.”
Abdeslam, a 26-year-old French national who grew up in Brussels, fled Paris for Belgium by car hours after the 13 November attacks which killed 130 people. He is believed to have played a key role in organising the attacks.
Police believe he played a key role in the logistics of the Paris attacks and escorted the three suicide bombers who blew themselves up at the Stade de France as part of the coordinated attacks.
Investigators are also considering whether he planned to carry out his own suicide attack in the 18th arrondissement of the Frenchcapital, and perhaps backed out. His brother blew himself up and died at a Paris bar on Boulevard Voltaire during the attacks.
Abdeslam had called friends to drive to collect him in Paris hours after the attacks. While they were driving him back to Belgium, the car was briefly stopped at the French-Belgian border and Abdeslam’s ID was checked, but he was allowed to continue through to Belgium and has been on the run ever since, the focus of an international manhunt.
Abdeslam reportedly stayed holed up in an apartment in the Schaerbeek district in north Brussels for three weeks after the Paris attacks.
In January, Belgian authorities said they had found two apartments and a house used by Abdeslam and other suspects in the run-up to the attacks.
A fingerprint belonging to Abdeslam was found in one apartment along with traces of explosives, possible suicide belts and a drawing of a person wearing a large belt.
Authorities also found DNA traces from Bilal Hadfi, another of the attackers who blew himself up with a bomb vest near the French national stadium during the November attacks.
source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...eslam-wounded-in-brussels-terror-raid-reports
Salah Abdeslam is on the run from police after the Paris attacks in November. Photograph: DSK/AFP/Getty Photograph: DSK/AFP/Getty Images
Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam has been shot and arrested in an ongoing raid in the Molenbeek area of Brussels, Belgian police have told AFP.
Police sources told the news agency that Abdeslam was injured in the leg and was arrested.
French president Franois Hollande said an operation was under way in Brussels linked to the Paris attacks, but could not confirm that Abdeslam had been injured or apprehended. Gunshots and explosions were heard in the Molenbeek area.
The police operation in Molenbeck was launched just as Belgian prosecutors confirmed that Abdeslam’s fingerprints had been found at a flat that was raided in the Forest area of Brussels on Tuesday. Two suspects fled that raid.
Prior to the Molenbeek raid Belgian federal prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt said it had not been established how old the fingerprints were, or how long Abdeslam spent in the apartment.
When French and Belgian police arrived to search the flat on Tuesday, they were met with gunfire from automatic weapons from behind the door. A police sniper shot one of the gunmen through a window, Mohamed Belkad, a 35-year-old Algerian living illegally in Belgium and known to police for a theft case in 2014. “Next to his body was a Kalashnikov, a book on Salafism and an Islamic State flag,” according to Thierry Werts, of the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office.
The Belgian prosecutor’s office said Belkad was “more than likely” one of the key logistics operatives behind the Paris attacks, who had been sought by police under the false name of Samir Bouzid. Le Monde reported that investigators believe a man using the name Samir Bouzid had received the last text message sent by three of the Paris attackers before they staged a bloody gun attack on a rock gig at the Paris Bataclan concert hall. The message said, “We’ve left, we’re on the way.”
Abdeslam, a 26-year-old French national who grew up in Brussels, fled Paris for Belgium by car hours after the 13 November attacks which killed 130 people. He is believed to have played a key role in organising the attacks.
Police believe he played a key role in the logistics of the Paris attacks and escorted the three suicide bombers who blew themselves up at the Stade de France as part of the coordinated attacks.
Investigators are also considering whether he planned to carry out his own suicide attack in the 18th arrondissement of the Frenchcapital, and perhaps backed out. His brother blew himself up and died at a Paris bar on Boulevard Voltaire during the attacks.
Abdeslam had called friends to drive to collect him in Paris hours after the attacks. While they were driving him back to Belgium, the car was briefly stopped at the French-Belgian border and Abdeslam’s ID was checked, but he was allowed to continue through to Belgium and has been on the run ever since, the focus of an international manhunt.
Abdeslam reportedly stayed holed up in an apartment in the Schaerbeek district in north Brussels for three weeks after the Paris attacks.
In January, Belgian authorities said they had found two apartments and a house used by Abdeslam and other suspects in the run-up to the attacks.
A fingerprint belonging to Abdeslam was found in one apartment along with traces of explosives, possible suicide belts and a drawing of a person wearing a large belt.
Authorities also found DNA traces from Bilal Hadfi, another of the attackers who blew himself up with a bomb vest near the French national stadium during the November attacks.
source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...eslam-wounded-in-brussels-terror-raid-reports
