Paris terror attack ringleader 'had links to would-be terrorists based in Britain'

Ringleader: Abdelhamid Abaaoud is said to have planned the Paris attacks
Rachel Blundy4 December 2015

The ringleader of the Paris terror attacks had links to would-be terrorists based in Britain, it has been revealed.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud was in contact with several extremists living in Birmingham before he orchestrated the November 13 attacks in which 130 people were killed.

The Islamic State militant, 28, who was of Moroccan-Belgian descent but had spent time in Syria, died during a police raid in the Parisien suburb of Saint-Denis five days later.

Tributes: a policeman looks at hundreds of flowers outside the Bataclan theatre in Paris, where gunmen killed fans at a rock concert
Jeremy Selwyn

The Wall Street Journal today cited Western officials as saying he had connections with Birmingham based extremists, some of whom are of Moroccan heritage.

The newspaper also reported that one person connected to the attacks had travelled to the UK before the shootings.

Scotland Yard, which leads counter-terror operations in the UK, declined to comment on the reports.

Police remain on heightened alert for a major terrorist attack in London.

A bloodied man is led away from the scene of the siege in the Paris suburb of Saint Denis
Reuters

The news comes after Belgian and French authorities today revealed they were hunting two new suspects who they say used fake identity cards around Europe and sent money to a relative of Abaaoud.

The two men, carrying bogus ID in the names of Samir Bouzid and Soufiane Kayal, had been traveling in a Mercedes with another Paris attacks fugitive, Salah Abdeslam, when the car was checked on September 9 at the Hungarian-Austrian border.

Additional reporting by the Associated Press

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in