Paris attacks: French police carry out 168 raids and arrest 23 as Belgian special forces hunt for suspect in Molenbeek

Police also end four-hour siege in Molenbeek and make one arrest
Siege: Belgian special forces police climb high on an apartment block during a raid in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek
Reuters
Jason Collie16 November 2015

French police raided 168 locations across the country and arrested 23 people as authorities identified more members of a sleeper cell said to be behind the Paris terror attacks.

French and Belgian jihadis – and at least one potential Syrian member – are being implicated in what was the worst attack on French soil since World War II that claimed the lives of 129 people.

The mastermind is said to be a Belgian national linked to thwarted earlier attacks on a train and a French church.

With France under a state of emergency that gives police special powers, the hunt continued for members of the cell that carried out last Friday’s gun and bomb attacks.

Authorities also identified more members of a sleeper cell said to be behind the attacks.

Interactive map of police and special forces raids across France and Belgium

French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said police arrested 23 people and recovered a Kalashnikov and other weapons during the overnight raids.

Raids in France centred on Toulouse, Lyon, Marseilles, Grenoble, Calais, Jeumont, Strasbourg and Lille, as well as the Parisian communes of St Denis and Bobigny.

Belgian police arrested at least one person after a four-hour siege at a house in the Brussels district of Molenbeek but failed to find Saleh Abdeslam, a 26-year-old Frenchman based in the Belgian capital for whom an international arrest warrant has been issued.

Hunting: Anti terrorism police officers enter a building during a raid in the Mirail district in Toulouse
AP

Molenbeek mayor Francoise Schepmans told broadcaster RTBF that the operation was over with no one injured and that “arrests” had been made. RTBF later said one person had been detained.

A Reuters journalist at the scene said that three special force commandos wearing gas masks entered the sieged house via the roof.

After about 15 minutes, they came out of the front door. Armoured vehicles were also in position.

The poor district of Molenbeek, home to many Muslim immigrants, has been at the centre of investigations of militant attacks in Paris over the weekend, after it emerged that two of the attackers had lived in the area.

However, Mohamed Abdeslam, the brother of one of the bombers and Saleh, has been released, his lawyer said.

Nathalie Gallant told the RTL network that her client "hadn't made the same choice of life".

On guard: French paratroopers patrol outside the Great Mosque in Lyon
Reuters/Robert Pratta

French authorities have identified several suspected attackers, most with links to France or Belgium.

A French official identified the suspected mastermind as Belgian Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who is said to be linked to the thwarted attacks on a Paris-bound high-speed train and a Paris area church earlier this year.

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