8 nabbed in French raid

SAINT-DENIS, France -- The hunt for the mastermind of last week's attacks took authorities Wednesday to a Paris suburb where a gunbattle involving more than 100 police officers and soldiers left at least two people dead and eight arrested. The fate of the suspected ringleader was unclear, with authorities saying he was not taken alive and trying to determine whether he died in the raid.

Police began the operation after receiving information from tapped phone calls, surveillance and tips suggesting that 27-year-old Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian of Moroccan descent, was holed up in an apartment in Paris' Saint-Denis neighborhood.

A SWAT team swooped in and "neutralized" what Paris prosecutor Francois Molins called a "new team of terrorists" that appeared ready for a new attack.

Molins said the dead were still being identified but that neither Abaaoud nor another fugitive, Salah Abdeslam, was in custody.

"At this time, I'm not in a position to give a precise and definitive number for the people who died, nor their identities, but there are at least two dead people," Molins said.

Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geens also said he could not confirm whether Abaaoud was among those killed in the raid.

Molins said police units including snipers threw grenades and fired 5,000 rounds in an hourlong gunbattle that began before dawn Wednesday. The dead included a woman who was believed to have blown herself up with a suicide belt, though Molins said that "this point needs to be verified by an analysis of the body and human remains."

French media reports identified the suicide bomber as Hasna Aitboulahcen, 26, a French citizen and a cousin of Abaaoud.

Five police officers were wounded and a SWAT team dog, Diesel, was killed in the gunbattle, during which the third floor of the apartment building collapsed.

After the raid, forsenics experts combed through the wreckage -- blown-out windows, floors collapsed by explosions -- seeking DNA and other evidence.

The site of Wednesday's raid is not far from the Stade de France soccer stadium; three suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the stadium during an international soccer game as part of the attacks Friday that left 129 people dead and hundreds wounded.

Sounds of battle

Residents on Wednesday described hunkering down in fear.

"We tried to stop our children hearing the noise," said Farah Appane, who lives about 80 yards from where the raid took place. "My 19-month-old was crying. Our 8-year-old said: 'What is it? Are there more attacks?'"

She said she could hear gunfire on and off for over an hour, followed by "one really huge boom."

Uthayaseelan Sanmugan, a 38-year-old cook who lives near the targeted apartment, said he woke at 4:30 a.m. to the sound of gunfire, went to his window and saw the lights of weapon lasers outside.

"When I got to the street, I saw a lot of blood on the sidewalk, the blood of the terrorists."

Residents were instructed to stay inside their homes.

"I heard gunshots and, sometime around 7 a.m., a huge blast, an explosion," said Kelly Ovo, a 45-year-old day laborer who lives close to the apartment.

The head of one of the special forces units that took part in the raid, Jean-Michel Fauverge, said police used drones and robots equipped with cameras to see what was going on inside during the raid but that there was too much debris.

When police entered the building, they found a body that had fallen from the third floor to the second, he told the French newspaper Le Figaro.

"The corpse was mutilated, probably from grenades, and he wasn't recognizable," Fauverge said. "Other people were in the stairwell, two men hiding under blankets and whatever they could find. We arrested them."

Molins said five men were taken into custody in the apartment building, including two who were pulled from the rubble. A woman and two other men, including the man whose apartment was used as the cell's hideout, were arrested on a nearby street.

Authorities didn't release their identities; Molins would say only that Abaaoud and Abdeslam were not among the arrested.

Tracking the attackers

Investigators have identified Abaaoud as the chief architect of the attacks Friday near the soccer stadium, at a crowded concert hall and at popular nightspots in a trendy Paris neighborhood.

A U.S. official briefed on intelligence matters said Abaaoud was a key figure in an Islamic State external operations cell that U.S. intelligence agencies have been tracking for months.

Abaaoud is believed to have escaped to Syria after a January police raid in Belgium, but he has bragged in Islamic State propaganda of his ability to move between Europe and Syria undetected.

In its English language magazine, the Islamic State said it will continue its violence and "retaliate with fire and bloodshed" for insults against the Prophet Muhammad and "the multitudes killed and injured in crusader airstrikes."

French authorities have said seven attackers were killed Friday -- six who blew themselves up and one who was killed by police. Abdeslam got away, as well as possibly another, so far unidentified, assailant, officials said.

Molins said Wednesday that investigators found a cellphone in a garbage can outside the Bataclan concert hall where 89 of the victims of Friday's carnage died. It contained a text message sent about 20 minutes after the massacre began. "We're off, it's started," it read.

Molins said investigators were still trying to identify the recipient of the message.

The phone's data contained a map of the music venue, French media outlets reported.

Also Wednesday, a video was posted on the Daily Mail website that appears to be from security cameras showing a nearly empty restaurant break into chaos with bullets smashing into walls and diners and employees diving for cover. A gunman is seen briefly when he approaches the restaurant's terrace and points his rifle at someone lying on the ground. A moment later he leaves, and a woman rises and dashes for safety.

The restaurant is not named in Daily Mail's accompanying article, but examination of the video suggests it is Casa Nostra, a pizzeria near the Bonne Biere, another restaurant hit by the attackers and where five people were killed.

Across France, 118 additional raids were conducted overnight Tuesday, yielding at least 25 arrests. That raised to 414 the number of raids throughout France since Friday, the Interior Ministry said.

In Copenhagen, a terminal at the Danish capital's international airport was briefly evacuated after "an overheard conversation about a bomb," police said in a Twitter post. The terminal was later reopened.

Some countries, including Sweden and Italy, raised terror alerts. Extra security was posted in St. Peter's Square, where Pope Francis addressed pilgrims.

A Spanish security official said Wednesday that French authorities had sent a bulletin to police across Europe asking them to watch out for a Citroen Xsara car that could be carrying Abdeslam, whose brother, Brahim, was among the attackers who blew themselves up.

French authorities have said most of the attackers -- five have been identified so far -- were unknown to them. But two U.S. officials said that many, though not all, of those identified were on the U.S. no-fly list. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

French authorities declared a state of emergency after the attacks, and security forces have made 60 arrests and seized 75 weapons, including 11 military-style firearms, during the 414 raids, the Interior Ministry said. Parliament is expected to vote by the end of the week to extend the state of emergency for three months.

Information for this article was contributed by Thomas Adamson, Karl Ritter, Raphael Satter, Greg Keller, Philippe Sotto, Sylvie Corbet, Lori Hinnant, Angela Charlton, Jill Lawless Samuel Petrequin, Jamey Keaten, David Rising, Ciaran Giles, Ken Dilanian and Alan Fram of The Associated Press and by Souad Mekhennet, Anthony Faiola, Missy Ryan, Daniela Deane, Virgile Demoustier, Emily Badger, Karla Adam and Loveday Morris of The Washington Post.

A Section on 11/19/2015