New Delhi: Belgian jihadist Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected Paris attacks mastermind, may have committed suicide during predawn raids on Wednesday by French police at a suburban Paris apartment, French Ambassador to India François Richier was cited as saying, as per news agency reports.
Mr Richier also said more attacks against France and in Europe can be expected since French security forces have tracked a group of people who were associated with the Paris attackers.
Abaaoud, the 28-year-old Islamic State militant from Brussels of Moroccan origin, was believed to be inside the apartment in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis with five other heavily armed people when the raids started, according to a French police official.
“According to information I have, yes he committed suicide during the operation,” Mr Richier was quoted as telling a news channel. The Ambassador was asked whether Abaaoud was arrested or killed during the seven-hour raids in the massive hunt for the suspected mastermind of the gun and bomb rampage last Friday in which at least 129 people were killed.
“I have information which leads us to suspect that he committed suicide. I have no documents to say that. That is the first indication we have received,” Mr Richier was quoted as saying.
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