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TERRORISM

Paris terror plotter ‘took Metro after attacks’

The man believed to have been the commander of the Paris terrorist attacks on November 13th was caught on CCTV entering a Metro station shortly after the massacre, suggesting he may have taken part in the bloodshed.

Paris terror plotter 'took Metro after attacks'
Photo:AFP

Abdelhamid Abaaoud was confirmed dead on Thursday, a day after he was killed in a police raid on a safe house in the suburb of Saint-Denis.

Abaaoud is considered to have ordered and meticulously planned the attacks, as well as several other foiled terror plots in Paris this year.

Until this week authorities were under the impression he was in Syria.

On Friday various reports in the French media claimed that police had spotted Abaaoud jumping over the barriers of the Metro station at Croix de Chavaux, in Montreuil.

The station, near the end of Line 9, is located just 200 metres from from where a Black Seat car was found, that had been used in the attacks on the cafe and bar terraces across eastern Paris.

Inside the car police found an arsenal of weapons including several kalashnikovs.

Up until now Abaaoud had just been considered the ringleader and organiser of the attacks but his presence in Montreuil at 22.14, after dozens had been slaughtered, suggests he may have been part of the team that carried out the shootings.

Police believe the brothers Salah and Brahim Abdelsam are believed to have been behind the terrace shootings, but a third man was spotted in the car in a video seen by investigators.

Salah is still on the run and was apparently spotted in Anderlecht, Belgium on Thursday night. Brahim blew himself up the Comptoir Voltaire brasserie shortly after the shootings.

It is not clear where Abaaoud travelled to after being seen jumping over the barriers at Croix de Chavaux.

 

TERRORISM

Italian police arrest Algerian wanted for alleged IS ties

Police in Milan said on Thursday they had arrested a 37-year-old Algerian man in the subway, later discovering he was wanted for alleged ties to Islamic State.

Italian police arrest Algerian wanted for alleged IS ties

When stopped by police officers for a routine check, the man became “particularly aggressive”, said police in Milan, who added the arrest took place “in recent days”.

He was “repeatedly shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ while attempting to grab from his backpack an object that turned out to be a knife with a blade more than 12cm (nearly five inches) long,” they said in a statement.

The man was later found to be wanted by authorities in Algeria, suspected since 2015 of belonging to “Islamic State militias and employed in the Syrian-Iraqi theatre of war,” police said.

Police said the suspect was unknown to Italian authorities.

The man is currently in Milan’s San Vittore prison and awaiting extradition, they added.

Jihadist group IS proclaimed a “caliphate” in 2014 across swathes of Syria and Iraq, launching a reign of terror that continues with hit-and-run attacks and ambushes.

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