Moroccan intelligence led French police to suspected architect of Paris attacks

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Monday 23 Nov 2015 - 13:46 Makkah mean time-11-2-1437 Image from maghrebdailynews Rabat, (IINA) - A tip-off from Moroccan intelligence services helped French police locate the suspected architect of last Friday’s atrocities in Paris, The Irish Times online news reported.  Abdel Hamid Abaaoud 28 year-old, a Belgian, was killed along with two others in a seven-hour firefight with police in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis on Wednesday. French authorities had thought Abaaoud was in Syria, where he had become one of ISIS most high profile European recruits, but Moroccan officials informed them in recent days that Abaaoud was in France. Police then focused on Hasna Aitboulahcen, a woman with links to him whom they were already trailing as part of a separate drugs investigation. By tracing her phone they were able to track her down to Saint-Denis, where they watched her bring Abaaoud into the run-down flat on rue du Corbillon on Tuesday evening. Police stormed the building at 4.20 am the next morning. It also emerged on Friday that Abaaoud had been identified on CCTV footage recorded at a suburban metro station while the killings were in progress in central Paris last Friday. He was seen at the Croix de Chavaux station in Montreuil, not far from where one of the cars used in the attacks was found. Abaaoud’s own family has disowned him, accusing him of abducting his 13-year-old brother, who was later promoted on the internet as ISIS youngest foreign fighter in Syria. Moroccan authorities arrested another of his brothers, Yassine, last month after he arrived in Agadir and has been held in custody since. As a massive police crackdown on suspected radicals continued across France, a bill to extend the state of emergency until February and give the police sweeping new powers was approved almost unanimously by the upper house. In the past week, police have used the state of emergency decree to enter 793 premises across France. They have held 90 people for questioning, put 164 under house arrest and recovered 174 weapons including assault rifles and other guns, the interior ministry said. A rocket launcher was found at an address in Lyon. Among the premises searched yesterday was a mosque in Brest, in western France. SM/IINA