France terror
Paris attacks mastermind confirmed killed
Abdelhamid Abaaoud, chief suspect of planning Friday's coordinated attacks, killed in massive police raid in Paris.
The Belgian jihadi suspected of masterminding deadly attacks
in Paris died along with his cousin in a police raid on a suburban apartment building, officials said Thursday.
The bodies recovered in the raid were badly mangled, with a part of Aitboulahcen's spine landing on a police car, complicating formal identification, according to one of the officials.
Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins' office said the 27-year-old was identified based on skin samples, but authorities did not know how he died. His body was found in the apartment building targeted in the chaotic and bloody raid in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis on Wednesday.
Abdelhamid Abaaoud
Three police officials say a woman who died in the raid was Abaaoud's cousin. One said Hasna Aitboulahcen is believed to have detonated a suicide vest after a brief conversation with police officers.
The official confirmed an audio recording, punctuated by gunshots, in which an officer asks, "Where is your boyfriend?" and she responded angrily, "He's not my boyfriend!" Then loud bangs are heard.
The exact relationship between Abaaoud and Aitboulahcen was not clear.
The French interior minister had previously said that French authorities were not aware of Abaaoud's presence on the continent, but were aware of his role in between three to six foiled plots in the last year.
The suspected mastermind
Police launched the operation after receiving information from tapped phone calls, surveillance and tipoffs suggesting that Abaaoud was holed up there. Eight people were arrested in the raid.
French authorities have said most of the Friday attackers - five have been identified so far - were unknown to them. But two US officials said that many, though not all, of those identified were on the US no-fly list.
French authorities declared a state of emergency after the attacks, and security forces have conducted 414 raids, making 60 arrests and seizing 75 weapons, including 11 military-style firearms, the Interior Ministry said.
France's lower house of parliament voted Thursday to extend the state of emergency by three months.
The state of emergency expands police powers to carry out arrests and searches, and allows authorities to forbid the movement of persons and vehicles at specific times and places.
