Prosecutor Says Abaaoud Planned Paris Business District Attack
Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected architect of a terror attack in Paris on Nov. 13, planned to blow himself up with an accomplice a few days later in the capital’s largest business district, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said.
“The two terrorists had planned to blow themselves up on Nov. 18 or Nov. 19 at La Defense,” Molins said at a news conference in Paris on Tuesday.
Abaaoud, who was killed during a police raid in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis on Nov. 18, was also linked by French officials to a failed assault on a Paris-bound high-speed train in August and a plot to attack a church in the city in April. Salah Abdeslam, a second suspect in the November killings, during which 130 people died, is still on the run, Molins said.
According to security video footage in the Paris metro, it seems Abaaoud came back to the Le Bataclan concert hall crime scene after the attacks as police operations were underway, Molins said. Two explosive vests were found at the Saint-Denis hideout while Abdeslam made calls to Belgium after the attack, he said.
Six judges are in charge of investigations, Molins said.