Paris Massacre Suspect Wounded, Caught in Brussels Shootout

[mystery-ak]

http://www.newsmax.com/PrintTemplate.aspx/?nodeid=719778


Newsmax
Paris Massacre Suspect Wounded, Caught in Brussels Shootout
Friday, March 18, 2016 12:58 PM

By: Newsmax Wires

BRUSSELS — The most-wanted fugitive from November's Paris attacks was wounded and caught in a shootout in Brussels Friday, French police sources said.

Other media reported two people had been arrested, though France's President Francois Hollande said there was no confirmation of the detention of Salah Abdeslam, the 26-year-old French suspect from Brussels.

Television footage showed masked, black-clad security forces guarding a street in the capital and reporters at the scene described white smoke rising from a rooftop.

A police spokeswoman said an operation was ongoing and could not give further details.

Belgian police had found finger prints belonging to Abdeslam at the scene of an earlier shootout, prosecutors said.

The Belgian federal prosecutor's office also said an Algerian killed during that earlier operation at an apartment in Brussels on Tuesday was probably one of the people French and Belgian investigators were seeking in relation to the Islamic State attacks in Paris on Nov. 13.

It later said in a separate statement that Mohamed Belkaid was probably the man who went under the name of Samir Bouzid and was killed on Tuesday.

Public broadcaster RTBF said it had information that Abdeslam, whose elder brother blew himself up in Paris, was "more than likely" one of two men who police have said evaded capture at the scene before a sniper shot dead 35-year-old Belkaid as he aimed a Kalashnikov.

Other Belgian media were more cautious, however, saying only there was evidence Abdeslam had been there.

A man named Samir Bouzid has been sought since December when police issued CCTV pictures of him wiring cash from Brussels two days after the Paris attacks to a woman who was then killed in a shootout with police in the Paris suburb of St. Denis.

She was a cousin of Abdelhamid Abbaoud, a Belgian who had fought in Syria and is suspected of being a prime organiser of the attacks in which 130 people were killed. Both died in the apartment in St. Denis on Nov. 18.

France's BFM television said the fingerprints were found on a glass in the apartment, where four police officers, including a Frenchwoman, were wounded when a hail of automatic gunfire hit them through the front door as they arrived for what officials said they had expected to be a relatively routine search.

Belgian officials said earlier in the week that police had not expected to find armed suspects at the apartment and that the presence of French officers was not an indication the raid was of special importance to the investigation.

Abdeslam's elder brother was among the suicide bombers who killed themselves in Paris during a shooting rampage in which 130 people died. The younger Abdeslam was driven back to Brussels from Paris hours later.

Belgian authorities are holding 10 people suspected of involvement with him, but there has been no report of the fugitive himself being sighted. There has long been speculation in Belgium that he could have fled to Syria.

Investigators believe much of the planning and preparation for the November bombing and shooting rampage in Paris was conducted in Brussels by young French and Belgian nationals, some of whom fought in Syria for Islamic State.

The attack strained relations between Brussels and Paris, with French officials suggesting Belgium was lax in monitoring the activities of hundreds of militants returned from Syria.

Brussels, headquarters of the European Union as well as Western military alliance NATO, was entirely locked down for days shortly after the Paris attacks for fear of a major incident there. Brussels has maintained a high state of security alert since then.

[truth_seeker]

My guess is that France does NOT have namby-pamby-sissy rules against necessary interrogation methods.

His life just changed, and he won't like it at all.

[Bill Cipher]

My guess is that France does NOT have namby-pamby-sissy rules against necessary interrogation methods.

His life just changed, and he won't like it at all.

Definitely!

[flowers]

I am surprised they got him. Then again this isn't the obama admin who was looking for this guy.

[EC]

I am surprised they got him. Then again this isn't the obama admin who was looking for this guy.

Don't be. While it may be fashionable to deride the French, it's also extremely stupid.

[truth_seeker]

Don't be. While it may be fashionable to deride the French, it's also extremely stupid.

I believe that law enforcement people across Europe are quite good.

In 1970 while living in Germany some friends were robbed in their home, by confidence artists.

Our friends made friends with a young German couple, and the couple visited their home, and while one kept them occupied, the other found valuables and took them.

The German police captured them within hours. We were all very impressed.

I am a near fanatic viewer of the genre of European Police procedurals. Mainly UK but some other very entertaining ones, as well.

[rangerrebew]

Paris attacks 'bomb-factory' found in Brussels
#ParisAttacks

Belgian prosecutors say bomb-belts and fingerprint of key suspect Salah Abdeslam found after raid on flat in Schaerbeek area of capital
Henri Berge Street in Schaerbeek, Brussels, 8 January 2016 (AFP)
 
Friday 8 January 2016 14:33 UTC
Last update:
Friday 8 January 2016 14:49 UTC
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Belgian police have found a Brussels flat where bombs used in the Paris attacks could have been made and where key suspect Salah Abdeslam may have hidden after the massacre, prosecutors said Friday.

Three hand-made belts for possible use in suicide attacks, traces of explosives and one of Abdeslam's fingerprints were discovered during a search in December of the apartment in the Schaerbeek area, they said.

The flat was rented by someone using a false name, possibly used by another suspect in the 13 November Paris attacks who is now in custody in Belgium, the federal prosecutor said.

Prosecutors said Abdeslam might have hidden in the flat after the 13 November attacks, but that they were also working on the theory that the explosive devices used in the massacre could have been made there.

"We found the fingerprint but we have no idea when it was left - a fingerprint has no date or time on it," prosecutors' spokesman Eric Van Der Sypt told AFP.

"Maybe he went there to get his belt (before the attacks), and maybe he went back afterwards. I suppose it's a possibility of both," he added.
An international manhunt has been underway for Belgian-born Abdeslam, 26, since suicide bombers and assailants firing automatic weapons killed 130 people and wounded many more in a wave of attacks across Paris.

Investigators said friends drove Abdeslam from Paris back to the Belgian capital, slipping through three police checks, while one suspect has since said that he drove Abdeslam across Brussels to Schaerbeek on November 14.

There was no sign of police activity on Thursday at the apartment block in the quiet Schaerbeek area, AFP journalists said. Residents said they were not aware of any raid in December.

Prosecutors said the raid was carried out "in the framework of the investigation opened after the Paris attacks". They did not explain why details were only being released a month after the search.

"During a house search conducted December 10th in an apartment on the third floor, Rue Berge in Schaerbeek, material that can be used to fabricate explosives as well as traces of TATP were found," the prosecutor said in a statement, referring to a type of explosive.

"This apartment was rented under a false identity that might have been used by a person already in custody in this case," the statement added.

"Three handmade belts that might be used to transport explosives as well as a fingerprint of Salah Abdeslam were also discovered."
Hunt continues

Prosecutors would not comment on Belgian media reports that the flat had been cleaned and checked for fingerprints after the attacks, which would explain why only one of Abdeslam's prints was found.

After the attacks, French authorities said that telephone data had placed Abdeslam in the area where an explosives belt was found in a dustbin in the Paris suburb of Montrouge.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the coordinated series of attacks on bars, restaurants and a concert hall, in which the attackers were armed with guns and suicide belts. Seven died during the assault but the total number of those directly involved is still unclear.

One of them was Abdeslam's brother, Brahim.

In early December, Belgian prosecutors said they were looking for two "armed and dangerous" men who used false ID papers to help Abdeslam travel to Hungary in September where he was stopped - but then let go - by police.

Belgian authorities have arrested and charged a total of 10 people in connection with the attacks, including several with helping Abdeslam.

France has long said the attacks were prepared and organised in Belgium and that the mastermind was Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Brussels resident who was killed in a police raid in Paris days after the massacre.
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/paris-attacks-bomb-factory-found-brussels-1741605275#sthash.2UiYH578.dpuf