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         Fate of Suspected Paris Attack 'Mastermind' Unknown After Raid

   by VOA News

   The fate of the suspected "mastermind" of last week's Paris terrorist
   attacks was not immediately known Wednesday after heavily armed police
   raided a suburban Paris apartment building where they believed he was
   holed up.

   In the predawn hours, police stormed the apartment building in
   Saint-Denis where they believed the 27-year-old Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a
   Belgian of Moroccan descent, was hiding.

   But when the raid ended, with two deaths and seven arrests, authorities
   said they could not immediately determine the militants' identities.

   Western intelligence agencies have been tracking Abaaoud for months,
   but he has proved elusive, bragging that he could move undetected
   between Syria and Europe.

   His own family has disowned him, with his older sister Yasmina saying
   she was "praying that Abdelhamid really is dead," when erroneous
   reports surfaced that he had been killed in Syria fighting for the
   Islamic State group a year ago.

   Bomb, gun attacks

   Earlier this week, French authorities identified him as the suspected
   chief planner of last Friday's bomb and gun attacks on a Paris concert
   hall, a soccer stadium, and restaurants and bars that killed 129 people
   and injured more than 300 others.

   Abaaoud is also suspected of involvement in two thwarted attacks, one
   in August against passengers on a Paris-bound high-speed train that was
   foiled by three young Americans on vacation and another against a
   French church.

   He once attended one of Brussels' most prestigious high schools,
   Saint-Pierre d'Uccle, but either flunked out after a year or was
   dismissed for poor behavior.

   It is unclear when he became radicalized, but Abaaoud dedicated himself
   to a Muslim holy war to the extent that he recruited his 13-year-old
   brother to join him Syria.

   In a French-language Islamic State recruiting video made public a year
   ago, Abaaoud said, "All my life, I have seen the blood of Muslims flow.
   I pray that Allah will break the backs of those who oppose him, his
   soldiers and his admirers, and that he will exterminate them."
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   of-paris-attack-after-raid/3063391.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/fate-unknown-of-suspected-mastermind-of-paris-attack-after-raid/3063391.html