HEAVY GUNFIRE IN PARIS
Police say raid underway in Paris suburb as witnesses report gunfire
By Jethro Mullen, Ashley Fantz and Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN
Updated 8:15 PM ET, Tue November 17, 2015 | Video Source: CNN
Paris (CNN)Witnesses have reported gunfire amid a police raid in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis as authorities hunt for two suspects from Friday's deadly terrorist attacks who are believed to be at large.
Police blocked off roads early Wednesday in Saint-Denis, which is home to the Stade de France sports stadium where three suicide bombings took place Friday.
CNN affiliate BFMTV reported that police officers have been wounded by gunfire during a raid seeking one of the suspects inthe wave of violence across Paris, which killed at least 129 people and wounded hundreds more.
French police wouldn't comment on whether any officers had been shot in the Saint-Denis operation.
BFMTV reported that the police raid was linked to the hunt for the so-called "ninth suspect," who may appear in a video recorded by a witness to the attacks.
Police have been analyzing the video, which shows two gunmen inside a black car linked to the attacks and perhaps a third individual driving the car, French media reported.
Seven of the attackers were killed during the wave of violence Friday night, and an international arrest warrant is already out for one suspect, Salah Abdeslam, a 26-year-old Frenchman.
The identity of the possible ninth suspect is unknown.
Abdeslam's older brother has urged the suspect, who was last seen driving toward the Belgian border hours after the attacks, to turn himself over to authorities.
"I would tell him to surrender. That's the best solution," Mohamed Abdeslam told CNN's Erin Burnett on Tuesday. "But of course, if he has something to do with it, he must accept responsibility."
Mohamed Abdeslam told CNN that before the attacks, he'd noticed his brothers changing and adopting more radical views.
He suspects the Internet could have played a role. But he said his family was shocked by the attack, and had no idea what they were planning.
"My brother who participated in this terrorist act must have been psychologically ready to commit such an act. These are not regular people," he said. "You cannot have the slightest doubt that they have been prepared, that they must not leave any trace which would cause suspicion that they might do such things. And even if you saw them every day, their behavior was quite normal."
Police stopped Salah Abdeslam hours after the attacks in a car on his way toward the Belgian border. They let him go because he apparently hadn't yet been linked to the terrorist operation.
Both he and Ibrahim were previously known to authorities:
Belgian prosecutor Eric Van Der Sypt told CNN's Ivan Watson that police questioned the Abdeslam brothers in February.
"Ibrahim tried to go to Syria and was sent back by the Turks in the beginning of 2015," Van Der Sypt said. "It was after that that we questioned him."
Both brothers were released, the federal prosecutor said, after they denied wanting to go to Syria.
He said Belgian authorities were also trying to keep an eye on Bilal Hadfi, one of the suicide bombers who struck outside the Stade de France, according to several sources. "We knew (Hadfi) was in Syria," Van Der Sypt said. "But what we didn't know is apparently he was back, as he blew himself up in Paris.
But we had no knowledge of the fact that he was back in Europe."
Declaring the country is "at war," French President Francois Hollande has proposed extending the state of emergency for a further three months, along with sweeping new anti-terrorism laws.
Security forces conducted more than 128 new raids around the country overnight, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Tuesday during a radio interview.
Parisians respond to tragedy with silent respect and defiance
Meanwhile, outside the country, French warplanes have launched wave after wave of airstrikes on ISIS' de facto capital of Raqqa in northern Syria, and a major Belgian police operation was conducted Monday in the Abdeslams' home base in Molenbeek, a Brussels suburb with a history of links to Islamist terror plots.
Belgian authorities say two men detained over the weekend in Molenbeek in connection with the attacks are now under arrest for "attempted terrorism and participation in the activities of a terrorist group."
Before the Paris attacks, France and its allies had tried to target a prominent ISIS member who is believed to have planned the assault on the French capital, a French source close to the investigation said.
Western intelligence agencies had attempted to track Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian citizen thought to be in Syria, but they weren't able to locate him, the source told CNN on Tuesday.
Read more: Who is the suspected ringleader?
Abaaoud had been implicated in the planning of a number of terrorist attacks and conspiracies in Western Europe before the Paris attacks.
Believed to be close to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, he was linked to a plan to attack Belgian police that was thwarted in January. He has since been featured in ISIS' online English-language magazine. His current whereabouts are unknown.
http://www.foxnews.com/?cmpid=NL_breaking 
