Wanted: Police have issued an international arrest warrant for 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, from Brussels, who is one of three brothers said to be involved in terror plot and rented their getaway car. Wanted: Police have issued an international arrest warrant for 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, from Brussels, who is one of three brothers said to be involved in terror plot and rented their getaway car.
Martin Robinson, Darren Boyle and Emma Glanfield
Police on Sunday issued an international arrest warrant for one of three French brothers believed to be at the heart of the eight-strong ISIS cell who murdered 129 people in Paris.
Police are hunting for Brussels-born Frenchman Salah Abdeslam, 26, who is accused of renting a Volkswagen Polo used by the suicide bombers who killed 89 people at the Bataclan music venue on Friday.
His brother Ibrahim, 31, blew himself up in a solo attack outside cafe Comptoir Voltaire after renting a black Seat found abandoned today filled with AK-47s and ammunition. A third brother, named Mohammad has been arrested in the Belgian capital.
It is believed the team of eight may all have gathered in a Belgian suburb called the “Jihad capital of Europe” to collect their AK-47s and suicide vests. French and Belgian police are investigating links between the international cell and the Molenbeek area of Brussels known as a “den of terrorists”.
It came as Iraqi intelligence said they warned Western countries of an imminent assault the day before the Paris attacks and Turkish officials claim they foiled a plot to kill in Istanbul on the same day in revenge for Jihadi John’s assassination in a drone strike last week.
The killer gang, containing a number of Frenchman living in Belgium, two others carrying Syrian passports after sneaking into Europe disguised as migrants and a female accomplice, are believed to have travelled together from Brussels to Paris in rented cars.
As the three brothers were identified the latest terrorist was named as Belgian Bilal Hadfi, 20, who had spent time fighting with ISIS in Syria before returning to Europe and detonating his suicide vest at the Stade de France.
Serbian media claims Ahmed Almuhamed, 25, whose Syrian passport was found on the body of a suicide bomber, allegedly blew himself up at the Bataclan concert hall, where at least 89 people were slaughtered on Friday. Two other bombers were said to be carrying fake Turkish passports, it was being reported tonight.
French police have said homegrown terrorist Omar Ismaël Mostefai , 29, from Courcouronnes, Paris, was one of the Bataclan suicide bombers but the father-of-one is said to have been radicalised by a Brussels-based hate preacher who spoke regularly at his French mosque.
Seven people have been arrested in connection with the France attacks in Belgium in the past 24 hours and five were held in the Molenbeek area of Brussels.
Three suspects were held after a discarded parking ticket found in a Volkswagen Polo rental car used by the terrorists in Paris led them to the same street where a gunman who opened opened fire on a high-speed train in August had lived.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said today that “those in Belgium who prepared the attacks were not known to the French intelligence services” and said the attack on Paris was “planned from abroad”.
A Frenchman believed directly involved in Friday’s attacks in Paris is on the run and the subject of a manhunt, French security officials said, after police stopped him re-entering Belgium on Saturday morning but did not know he was a suspect so let him go.
The man, one of three brothers believed involved in the killings in central Paris, rented a black Volkswagen Polo used by a group of hostage-takers that left at least 89 people dead inside the Bataclan concert hall, one official said.
As panic continued to grip Paris hundreds of people attending a memorial at the Place de la Republique started running amid reports of gunfire.
Channel 4 news were broadcasting live from the scene as panicked people fled. People trampled through floral tributes in an effort to escape from the scene in what was later described as a false alarm.
The face of one of the Paris killers was revealed in a passport found on the body of a suicide bomber who allegedly sneaked into France by posing as a refugee after being rescued from a sinking migrant boat.
Serbian media claims Ahmed Almuhamed, 25, whose Syrian passport was found on the body of a suicide bomber, allegedly blew himself up at the Bataclan concert hall, where at least 89 people were slaughtered on Friday.
The newspaper Blic claims Ahmed Almuhamed arrived with another of the bombers in Europe on the Greek island of Leros on October 3 on his way to Paris. Greek website Protothema have published ferry tickets showing the name of a second man, Mohammed Almuhamed, who could be a relation.
Ahmed, an asylum seeker, was issued with a Syrian passport as he followed the migrants’ route through the Balkans, Greece’s migration minister said this evening.
Yiannis Mouzalas, junior interior minister for migration, said the 25-year-old was registered on the island of Leros on October 3, left the country on an unknown date and was last recorded in Croatia later that month.
“This is the sole person on which we have received a request from the French police,” he told a news conference.
French judicial sources said the name was not known to French anti-terror services.
Two other bombers at the Stade de France attack were reportedly carrying Turkish passports as it emerged that Turkey’s authorities foiled a plot to stage a “major” attack in Istanbul on the same day as the deadly gun and suicide attacks in Paris.
“We believe they were planning an attack in Istanbul on the same day as the Paris attacks” on Friday, the official said on condition of anonymity. “Initial investigation shows we foiled a major attack.”
Police on Friday detained five people in Istanbul including a suspected close associate of the notorious Islamic State (IS) group militant known as “Jihadi John” who Washington believes was likely killed in a recent drone strike in Syria.
Iraqi security sources have also claimed they warned America and its allies of the plot a day before it happened.
The US-led coalition in Syria was apparently told that 24 extremists were involved in the terror operation planned in the ISIS capital Raqqa and it would involve 19 attackers including five others including bombmakers and planners.
In a series of potential blunder it has also emerged that the French security services had been warned of a ISIS plot to attack a concert venue three months ago.
It has emerged a woman may have been part of the eight-strong ISIS kamikaze terror squad and three brother may also have taken part.
Prosecutors in Brussels said today two vehicles used in the terror attack were rented there and another dumped in Paris has Belgian plates.
Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geens confirmed that the driver of a black Volkswagen Golf linked to the attack is a suspected Paris cell member and the brother of a jihadi fighter currently in Syria.
A black Seat Leon with Belgian plates used by the terrorists who murdered diners outside the Casa Nostra pizza restaurant and the La Belle Équipe cafe has been found abandoned in Paris with three AK-47s with five full magazines and 11 empty ones.
Officers are still hunting for two gunmen on the run and the bomb maker who made the killer gang’ suicide vests.
On the second day after the worst terror attack in French history it has emerged:
* French police are hunting for two gunmen on the run after Friday’s attacks and an ISIS bombmaker likely to have made the suicide vests
* One is known to be 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, from Brussels, who is accused of renting a Volkswagen Polo used by the suicide bombers who killed 89 people at the Bataclan music venue
* A Seat car used in drive-by shootings at two restaurants was found abandoned containing three AK-47s with five full magazines and 11 empty ones
* One of Bataclan suspects was found carrying a Syrian passport under the name Ahmed Almuhamed, who travelled to France as a migrant through Greece. Ferry tickets reveal he travelled with another man named as Mohammed Almuhamed.
* Frenchman Omar Ismaël Mostefai, 29, also named as a Bataclan suicide bomber who was identified by his severed finger. Mostefai’s father, a brother and other family members have been held and are being questioned.
* Mostefai said to have been radicalised by a Belgian hate preacher of Moroccan descent said to have regularly preached at his mosque
* Bataclan survivors claim that one of the four shooters who died after killing 89 people was a woman.
* Seven people were detained in Belgium linked to the atrocities – five in Brussels district known as a “den of terrorists”.
The down-at-heel suburb of Molenbeek has been dubbed “a den of terrorists” by Belgian media because it has repeatedly featured in attacks
The Islamist who killed people at a Paris kosher grocery in January at the time of the attack on the magazine Charlie Hebdo acquired weapons in the district.
Ayoub El Khazzani, the man behind August’s foiled attack on an Amsterdam-Paris train, had been staying in Molenbeek with his sister before initiating his strike.
Moroccan-born gunman Khazzani, 26, lived with his sister in Molonbeek, Brussels, weeks before his attempted attack on the Thalys train.
He stayed with his sister, who lives on the same road where two of the arrests were made in relation to the Paris attacks.
Several people spotted El Khazzani in the area where his sister lives in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek.
The sister was questioned by anti-terror detectives in Brussels. Now part of their investigation is around whether El Khazzani and the suspects planned the separate attacks.
A neighbour, who lives down the road where two of the arrests were made, said: “I remember El Khazzani lived here for a time. I don’t know whether he knew these men, but it’s certainly possible. This is quite a small community where everyone knows each other.”
The Jewish Museum shooter Mehdi Nemmouche, who killed three people at the in Brussels in 2014 also stayed in the district; as did one of those involved in the Madrid bombings in 2003.
The alleged mastermind behind a plot to kidnap and behead a policeman in the street – inspired by the Lee Rigby murder – Abdelhamid Abaoud, was from Molenbeek. The plot was foiled by Belgian police in January.
Belgian Prime Minster Charles Michel admitted the Molenbeek area has been a major security problem for many years.
He told VRT television today: “Almost every single time there’s a link with Molenbeek”, while Belgian Minister of Home Affairs Jan Jambon added: “The situation in Molenbeek is out of control.”
Jambon has claimed that intelligence agencies have discovered evidence of jihadis using the games consoles to communicate with a special, hidden recruitment channel. He told HNL.be: “Playstation 4 is even more difficult to monitor than WhatsApp.”
Yesterday, Belgian authorities swooped on the men in the St Jans Molenbeek area of Brussels at 5pm UK time yesterday – less than 19 hours after at least 129 innocent people lost their lives when gunmen and suicide bombers stormed four restaurants, a packed concert hall and a sports stadium in Paris.
The arrests came after a black Volkswagen Polo with Belgian number plates was seen parked outside the Bataclan theatre in Paris on Friday night – where more than 89 people were gunned down during an Eagles of Death Metal gig.
Intelligence officers found a parking ticket discarded in the vehicle which had been issued by authorities in the Molenbeek district, prompting police to launch a number of raids across the residential area of Brussels and arrest seven suspects thought to be linked to a terror cell.
Two further suspects wanted by French authorities are believed to have registered as refugees in Greece earlier this year.
French authorities had asked their Greek counterparts to check a passport and fingerprints of one man and the fingerprints of another who were thought to have registered in Greece, which is the main entry point into Europe for Syrian refugees.
At least one Syrian passport was found near the body of one of the assailants who died in Friday night’s violence.
Interpol has confirmed it has set up a “crisis response task force” at its headquarters in south-eastern France following the deadly attacks in Paris.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has said that the terror threat level in the UK will remain at “severe”, but that the Paris attack would prompt a review of plans and suggested the threat posed by ISIS was “evolving”.
Meanwhile, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said Scotland Yard would now “urgently review” its tactics for responding to terrorism attacks similar to the one in Paris. – Daily Mail