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Paris attackers - what we know so far

Here's a summary of what we know about those who planned and carried out last Friday's attacks, i...
Newstalk
Newstalk

18.38 16 Nov 2015


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Paris attackers - what we know...

Paris attackers - what we know so far

Newstalk
Newstalk

18.38 16 Nov 2015


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Here's a summary of what we know about those who planned and carried out last Friday's attacks, in which 129 people were killed.

  • Suicide Bombers

Ibrahim Abdeslam was reportedly among the seven suicide bombers in the co-ordinated assaults targeting six sites across the French capital. He blew himself up outside a restaurant, killing one civilian.

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Samy Amimour, 28, blew himself up inside the Bataclan theatre, where at least 89 people were killed. Prosecutors said he was from Drancy in northeast Paris and had been charged in a terrorism investigation in 2012. He had been placed under judicial supervision but dropped off the radar. Three people in Amimour's family have been in custody since early on Monday.

A Syrian passport for Ahmad al Mohammad, a 25-year-old born in Idlib, was found next to one of the suicide bombers after he died outside the national football stadium. The identity of the man in the passport has not been verified but the prosecutor's office said fingerprints from the attacker match those of someone who passed through Greece in October.

Bilal Hadfi is another suicide bomber who also lived in Belgium, said the Washington Post.

Ismael Omar Mostefai, a 29-year-old from Courcouronnes, a town 16 miles south of Paris, has been officially identified as another assailant. He was one of the terrorists inside the Bataclan and had been flagged for links to Islamic radicalism. His father and brother have been arrested.

French newspaper Le Monde said he was identified from a print from his severed finger, discovered after he detonated a suicide vest inside the Bataclan. The Turkish authorities said they identified Mostefai as a possible "terror suspect" in October 2014. They said French authorities were notified in December 2014 and in June 2015.

  • Being hunted

Salah Abdeslam, the brother of Ibrahim who has become known as "Public Enemy Number One", reportedly helped with logistics and rented a black Volkswagen Polo used by the gunmen who stormed the Bataclan concert hall.

The 26-year-old was apparently spoken to by officers on Saturday morning when they pulled over a car carrying three people near the Belgian border. Police then checked Abdeslam's ID and subsequently let him go but an international arrest warrant was then issued.

  • The Mastermind

The suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks has been named as Belgian Abdelhamid Abaaoud. It has been reported that Abaaoud had links to thwarted attacks on a Paris-bound high-speed train when two US soldiers and a civilian overpowered a heavily-armed gunman - and a separate attack on a church.

The 27-year-old is thought to be from the suburb of Molenbeek in Brussels, which was home to other members of the militant Islamist cell that carried out Friday's massacre. It is thought he is currently in Syria.


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