[Belgian extremist] Abdelhamid Abaaoud named as alleged mastermind of Paris terror attacks

[Turborama]

Source: The Guardian

French intelligence officials have named the alleged mastermind of a deadly string of suicide bombings and shootings in Paris as the Belgian extremist Abdelhamid Abaaoud, after French police made more than 20 arrests and seized arms and ammunition in a series of anti-terror raids across the country.

As details emerged of an elaborate international terror operation run from Syria and carried out by a sleeper cell based in Belgium, officials told French media Abaaoud, seen as one of Islamic State’s most active operatives, was “investigators’ best bet” as the main organiser of the attacks, which killed at least 129 people on Friday.

With longstanding connections to the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek, a hotbed of Islamic extremism and home to several members of the militant cell that carried out the attacks on the Stade de France, the packed Bataclan concert hall and a string of crowded bars and restaurants, Abaaoud is suspected of involvement in a narrowly averted attack on a Thalys high-speed Amsterdam-Brussels train in August.

He is also said to have carried out several armed robberies with one of the three French brothers alleged to have been involved in Friday’s attacks. A French jihadi arrested after returning from Syria this summer reportedly told police Abaaoud had told him to attack a concert hall.

The development came as the French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said police had searched 168 addresses in dawn raids across France, taking 23 people into custody and placing 104 more under house arrest.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/16/abdelhamid-abaaoud-named-as-alleged-mastermind-of-paris-terror-attacks

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Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected mastermind behind the Paris attacks, was sentenced to 20 years in prison earlier this year after being tried in absentia for recruiting for Islamic State in Syria.

He was among 32 people charged with running one of Belgium’s largest jihadi recruitment networks, although many of the defendants – including Abaaoud – were tried in absentia and remain at large.

The Belgian news agency Belga reported in July that Abaaoud was handed a 20-year jail term – the maximum sentence in the case – alongside the second main defendant, Khalid Zerkani, who was jailed for to 12 years for encouraging people to go to Syria.

Abaaoud was also accused of kidnapping after his younger brother Younes who travelled to Syria in January 2014 at the age of 13 and earned the media nickname of “the youngest jihadist in the world.”

Their father Omar Abaaoud, having heard no news from his two sons, filed a police complaint against the older son.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/nov/16/paris-attacks-france-airstrikes-isis-raqqa-syria-live#block-5649e660e4b0a51fe20184fa

[lark]

1. Duh, hello RW bloviators, did you notice this by any chance?

It wasn't a refugee who was the mastermind, it was a Belgian. Another leader was a French native! How is stopping the refugees, who have been injured by ISIS more than anyone, going to prevent terrorists attacks? Answer - it won't.

[totodeinhere]

4. It seems plausible to me that ISIS might try to smuggle in terrorists among the refugees.

Of course many potential terrorists are already in Europe, but the authorities need to apply diligence to try to ensure that even more do not come in among the refugees.

[brentspeak]

2. Molenbeek will have to be turned upside-down

and all its Islamic extremists rooted out, as ruthlessly as possible.

It's unfortunate that the civil liberties of many decent Molenbeek residents will be curtailed as a result, but the Jihadist rats hiding out there have to be stomped out, once and for all. There's no other way.

[LiberalLovinLug]

3. Also

I am sick of the use of "mastermind" to describe some criminal theocratic asshole for simply convincing obviously mentally damaged members of his cult to carry out a massacre (for endless orgy sex with a harem of 72 virgins), smuggling weapons, and deciding which venues would be the most vulnerable.

I save that term for Einstein, Da Vinci, Tesla and the like.

[bemildred]

5. +1.

Gives them too much credit, it does. It's pointless hype.