France identifies Belgian as Paris attacks mastermind; US bombs ISIS oil trucks

The World
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Soldiers patrol in front of the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Elysees in Paris, France, November 16, 2015, as security increases after last Friday's series of deadly attacks in the French capital.

US and French warplanes struck back at ISIS, targeting its self-proclaimed stronghold in Syria and the oil trucks that provide much of the terror group's cash. France also identified a Belgian national as the mastermind of the Friday night attacks in Paris. 

The US strike on ISIS trucks on Monday was its first ever. Six US warplanes took part in the operation, which destroyed at least 116 ISIS oil trucks in eastern Syria.


The Friday attack also provided conservative leaders with material to criticize the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing ISIS and violence in Syria and Iraq, among other nations. The governors of eight US states have said they do not want to accept any Syrian refugees.

The Belgian national was identified as Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the son of Moroccan immigrants who has made no secret of his ambitions to strike European targets.

The Paris prosecutor now says three teams of attackers were involved in the assault which resulted in the death of 129 people and more than 350 injured. The attacks Friday seemed to take French authorities by surprise, says Juliette Kayeem, former assistant secretary at the US Department of Homeland Security.

"I think what’s surprising is the extent to which something like that could be planned, organized, paid for, implemented with near perfection," Kayyem told PRI's The World on Monday "And it appears barely any intelligence to suggest it was about to happen.”

France and Belgium have conducted roundups and arrests after the attacks. Late Sunday, French fighter jets bombed ISIS targets in the Syrian city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic extremist group. Targets hit included a command center, a recruitment center, an ammunition storage base and a training camp for the terror group.

And a manhunt is underway for a suspect who may have managed to escape.

French authorities have issued a wanted notice with a picture of a 26-year-old man, identified as Abdeslam Salah.

Earlier Sunday, French officials said that several Kalashnikovs have been found in an abandoned car in the eastern Paris suburb of Montreuil.

The car is believed to have been used by some of the Paris attackers suggesting some of the attackers got away.

Officials have also identified the first of the seven dead attackers as Ismail Mostefai. Six people close to Mostefai are in custody.

Two concert-goers separated during the attack at the Paris Bataclan concert hall on Friday night are reunited afterwards.

Two concert-goers separated during the attack at the Paris Bataclan concert hall on Friday night are reunited afterwards.

Credit:

Shane Thomas McMillan

ISIS on Saturday claimed responsibility for the deadly Paris attacks and called them "the first of the storm." The terror group released the claim in multiple languages, in the same channel in which it claimed responsibility for the crash of a plane over the Sinai Peninsula carrying Russian tourists two weeks ago.

Most of the Paris victims came from an attack on the Paris Bataclan concert hall, where gunmen were holding an unknown number of hostages. French police stormed the hall, killing the four Bataclan attackers, authorities said. A Syrian passport was found on one of the assailants, and the AP, quoting a Greek officiai, said the shooter had entered Greece last month.

President Hollande mobilized at least 1,500 troops across the country, Germany offered a special anti-terror unit to help and Belgium reported arrests in Brussels. Friday's strike was one of the deadliest attacks in a Western nation since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror strikes on the US and the deadliest attack on European soil since the Madrid train bombings in 2004, in which 191 people were killed.

Shortly after the police raid on the Bataclan concert hall, Hollande traveled to the site and said France will fight the attackers "without mercy."

"We will lead the fight," he said. "It will be ruthless."

By early Saturday, police announced that all the Bataclan attackers had been killed.

There were at least five attacks across the city. Here is a map of the locations of the attacks:

On Saturday, Parisians cleaned their blood-soaked streets. People searched for missing relatives. The line at one hospital to give blood was three hours long on Saturday afternoon.

Paris-based reporter Jake Cigainero told PRI's The World that two shooters opened fire on a restaurant called Le Petit Cambodge, then holed up in the theater where they held the hostages. An eyewitness in the theater said the attackers were shooting for at least 15 minutes, reloading their guns three times.

Related story: World shows its support for France after deadly attacks

Police called the concert venue "a scene of apocalypse," according to Cigainero.

Hollande canceled his upcoming trip to Turkey for the Group of 20 summit and will hold a meeting with his defense council on Saturday morning.

France, which had been on heightened alert since the terror attack on the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in January, had further upped border security in preparation for the UN summit on climate change, scheduled in Paris less than three weeks from now. More than 100 world leaders are expected to attend.

A concert-goer stands on Rue Oberkampf watching the emergency response following the attack on the Bataclan concert hall in Paris on Friday night.

A concert-goer stands on Rue Oberkampf watching the emergency response following the attack on the Bataclan concert hall in Paris on Friday night.

Credit:

Shane Thomas McMillan

From the White House, President Barack Obama condemned the attackers. This, he said, was "an attack not just on Paris and not just on the people of France, but this is an attack on all of humanity and the universal values that we share."

"We're going to do whatever it takes ... to bring these terrorists to justice," he said.

"These are a lot more coordinated, a lot more sophisticated than we saw during the Charlie Hebdo attack," Vivienne Walt, a Paris-based correspondent for Time, told PRI's The World.

Photographer and filmmaker Shane McMillan was in his apartment in the 11th district when the shootings broke out outside. He told PRI's The World that he saw at least 10-15 people injured.

"I can't tell who's wounded and who's not," he said. "Everyone has blood on them."

On social media, Parisians are posting their addresses using the hashtag #PorteOuverte for those who need shelter in Paris. On social media, people and organizations around the world are also offering support.

This story is being updated. Contributing reporters included Anne Bailey, Joyce Hackel, Lizzy Tomei, Isis Madrid, Steven Davy, Angilee Shah, Jeb Sharp, David Beard and Matthew Bell.

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