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Seven terror suspects were arrested Wednesday morning and two others were killed, including a woman wearing a suicide vest who blew herself up, after police stormed a suburban Paris apartment targeting the alleged mastermind of last Friday's massacre in the French capital.
Investigators traced the mastermind to that apartment by tracking phone conversations and piecing together surveillance images and witness accounts, according to Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins and French Interior Minister Bernard Cazenueve.
Government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said just before noon (6 a.m. EST) that "the operation is over", more than seven hours after it began in Saint-Denis, north of central Paris. The fate of the suspected planner of Friday's massacre, 27-year-old Belgian ISIS militant Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was unclear. Forensics teams worked at the scene, and a security perimeter around the building remained in place.
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Abdelhamid Abaaoud. (Militant Photo via AP)
Abaaoud was believed to be in Syria after a January police raid in Belgium, but bragged in ISIS propaganda of his ability to move back and forth between Europe and Syria undetected.
Scores of police stormed the building and were met with unexpectedly violent resistance, a senior official who was informed about the operation told the Associated Press. Molins said five people were arrested in the apartment, while two others were arrested nearby. The prosecutor said the identities of those arrested and killed were still being verified.
French police confirmed that five officers suffered minor injuries in the raid. A police dog was also killed when the female suicide bomber blew herself up.
The apartment is just over a mile from the Stade de France stadium, which was targeted by three suicide bombers during Friday's attacks. Riot police cleared people from the streets, pointing guns at curious locals to move them off the roads.
Residents said an initial explosion shook the neighborhood at about 4 a.m. (10 p.m. EST).
"Then there was second big explosion. Then two more explosions. There was an hour of gunfire," said Baptiste Marie, a 26-year-old independent journalist who lives in the neighborhood.
Another witness, Amine Guizani, said he heard the sound of grenades and automatic gunfire.
"They were shooting for an hour. Nonstop. There were grenades. It was going, stopping. Kalashnikovs. Starting again," Guizani said.
Sporadic bangs and explosions continued, and at 7:30 a.m. (1:30 a.m. EST) at least seven explosions shook the center of Saint-Denis. Associated Press reporters at the scene could hear what sounded like grenade blasts from the direction of the standoff.
One local resident posted a 10-second video of the scene on her street near the siege. A series of bangs sounding like automatic weapons fire could be heard. The message accompanying the tweet translates to "It's an intervention by police ... street closed, officers, etc."
Seven attackers died in Friday's gun-and-bomb rampage through Paris that killed 129 and wounded over 350 others. Police had said before the raids that they were hunting for two fugitives suspected of taking part as well as any accomplices. That would bring the number of attackers to at least nine.
French authorities had previously said that at least eight people were directly involved in the bloodshed: seven who died in the attacks and one who got away and slipped across the border to Belgium.
However, there have been gaps in officials' public statements, which have never fully disclosed how many attackers took part in the deadly rampage.
On Tuesday, officials said they now believe at least one other attacker was involved and they were working to identify and track down that suspect. Three officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to provide details about the ongoing investigation.
Surveillance video obtained by the AP also indicated that a team of three attackers carried out the shootings at one of the cafes. The video was among evidence authorities used in concluding that at least one other attacker was at large, the French officials indicated.
The brief clip shows two black-clad gunmen with automatic weapons calmly firing on the bar then returning toward a waiting car, whose driver was maneuvering behind them. Authorities believe the car is the same black SEAT-make vehicle that was found Saturday with three Kalashnikovs inside.
Police have identified one subject of their manhunt as Salah Abdeslam, whom French police accidentally permitted to cross into Belgium on Saturday. One of his brothers, Brahim, blew himself up in Paris.
French authorities sent out a bulletin to police across Europe asking them to watch out for a Citroen Xsara car that could be carrying Salah Abdeslam, a Spanish security official told AP.
Speaking on French television Wednesday, President Francois Hollande said "we are at war" with ISIS. He called for a "large coalition" working together against Islamic State militants to destroy a group that threatens the whole world and "commits massacres" in the Mideast.
Hollande told lawmakers, “I know you have at heart the willingness to undertake this task.” He added that the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle just left to help French military operations in Syria against ISIS (FoxNews.com, 2015).
Fox News' Greg Palkot and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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