Two terrorists linked to Friday’s terror attacks in Paris are dead and seven others arrested following a major police operation on an apartment in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.
One of the terrorists was shot by a police sniper and the second, a woman, blew herself up with a suicide vest, BFMTV reported. A civilian passerby was accidentally killed and at least five police officers are reported wounded.
The target of the raid, a police source told the media, is the 27-year-old suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks, Belgian national of Moroccan descent Abdelhamid Abaaoud.
The surrounding neighborhood – which was the location of one of the attacks – was shut down by security officials. Sporadic gunfire could still be heard one hour after the operation was launched.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the eight simultaneous terror attacks that claimed the lives of 129 people and wounded more than 350 others in what French President Francois Hollande has called the worst attacks in French history.
Following the attacks, Hollande vowed to retaliate against ISIS, with French warplanes already carrying out bombing attacks against ISIS targets in Syria. Russia has joined the French bombing raids against the jihadist group in an unexpected alliance after ISIS claimed responsibility for the bombing of a Russian airliner over Egypt last month.
“It’s necessary to establish direct contact with the French and work with them as allies,” Russian President Vladimir Putin stated this week. Hollande and Putin are scheduled to meet in Moscow on November 26.
