Paris police raid halted terror unit that was ready to 'strike': prosecutor
Paris: A "commando" of people arrested or killed in a massive police raid in a Paris apartment Wednesday were a terror unit capable of staging a fresh attack, the city prosecutor said. "A new team of terrorists was neutralised and all indications are that given their arms, their organisational structure and their determination, the commando could have struck," said Paris prosecutor Francois Molins.
He also said police had found a cellphone belonging to one of the gunmen and suicide bombers who staged France's worst-ever attacks Friday, killing 129 people and injuring over 350. The phone was found in a dustbin outside the Bataclan music venue, scene of the worst violence, where 89 people were gunned down.
A text message showed one of the gunmen had sent a message saying "we're ready, let's go." The message was sent at 9:42 pm (2042 GMT), before the attack, Molins said, adding that police were investigating who the message was sent to. The suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was not among a number of people arrested in the police raid, Molins said.
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At least two bodies were found in the apartment in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, after a shootout with police, but they have not yet been identified, he told a press conference. He said intelligence had led investigators to believe Abaaoud, a leading Islamic State extremist, could have been in the apartment. In a ferocious shootout, a woman detonated her suicide vest and a body was found riddled with bullets and was "not in a state that allows it to be identified", Molins said.
Therefore, he said: "I am not able to give you a precise number and identity of those killed. There are at least two dead and verifications will likely take longer than expected" due to the state of the apartment building.
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