PARIS (CNN) — A suicide bomber blew herself up and a police sniper took out a second terror suspect after authorities stormed two apartments and a church Wednesday in the northern Parisian suburb that hosted one of last week’s deadly terrorist attacks.
The raid in Saint-Denis, home to the Stade de France arena that was hit by three suicide bombers Friday, targeted a suspected ringleader of the attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, though it wasn’t certain he was at any of the locations, a senior Belgian counterterrorism official told CNN.
Police sources say, however, the raid was well-timed because the suspects were “about to move on some kind of operation.”
Here are the most important developments from Wednesday:
The latest
• NEW: Investigators will use DNA analysis to determine whether Abaaoud was killed in the raid, a Belgian counterterrorism official told CNN. The source said a woman blew herself up when authorities raided the building, and a French commando team had to use powerful munitions to neutralize suspects — resulting in the collapse of an entire floor of the building. In the rubble, investigators found body parts, and they will need DNA analysis to identify the dead, the source said.
• NEW: Turkish authorities detained eight Moroccan men believed to be linked to ISIS. They had flown from Casablanca, Morocco, to Istanbul, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency. The men said they were tourists and had booked a hotel, but documents found on one of them indicated they planned to travel a migrant route through Greece, Serbia, and Turkey to Germany, Anadolu reported. A photo published with the news agency’s story showed the men in a room wearing Western clothing, including a Superman shirt, a puffy jacket, jeans and a hoodie.
• NEW: Overnight, police and gendarmes in France conducted 118 searches and arrested 29 people — 25 of whom were taken into custody — while confiscating 34 weapons, the French Interior Ministry said in a statement. Authorities also “found narcotics 16 times,” the statement said. These numbers bring the three-night totals to 414 police searches, 60 people taken into custody and 75 weapons seized (11 “war weapons,” 33 long-range weapons and 31 handguns), the ministry said.
• NEW: Two suspects from the Saint-Denis raids are being treated at a hospital in Bobigny, France, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV. Both suspects required surgery for arm injuries, the station said.
The investigation and Wednesday’s raid
• Seven people were arrested in the Saint-Denis raid. Authorities did not immediately identify them.
• Five police officers were injured and a police dog was killed, police said.
• The raids focused on two apartments on the same street, a Paris police source told CNN. The raid on one group led to a raid on another group, the source said. Witnesses reported hearing sustained gunfire about 4:30 a.m., and a CNN reporter said she heard five or six explosions at the scene, but it wasn’t clear if the explosions were controlled or otherwise.
• Investigators recovered multiple cell phones at the scenes of Friday’s attacks that are believed to belong to the attackers, a possible break that could help uncloak the plot and the network behind it, counterterrorism and intelligence officials said. One phone reportedly contained a message sent before the attacks, the gist of which was: OK, we’re ready.
• French police are analyzing a video that shows two gunmen and perhaps a third person inside a black SEAT automobile that has been tied to the attacks, French media reported.
The scene in France
• Two Air France flights headed for Paris — one from Washington Dulles International Airport and the other from Los Angeles — were diverted to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Salt Lake City, respectively, after bomb threats, officials say. Both flights have been searched and declared safe.
• The traditional opening of the Christmas lights in Paris, slated for Wednesday, was canceled because of the Friday terrorist attacks, organizers said.
Around the globe
• As a growing number of U.S. governors said they didn’t want Syrian refugees in their states, President Barack Obama criticized them, saying he “cannot think of a more potent recruitment tool for (ISIS).”
• Thirty-three ISIS members have been killed by French and other military airstrikes in the last 72 hours, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based monitoring group, said Wednesday. “Dozens of ISIS leaders and their families” are moving from Raqqa, ISIS’ self-proclaimed capital, in northern Syria, toward the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the Observatory said.
• German officials said they haven’t made any arrests or found any explosives at a stadium in Hannover, Germany, that was evacuated just before a friendly match between Germany and the Netherlands on Tuesday.
• Muslims worldwide take to social media using the hashtag #NotInMyName to condemn the Paris attacks.
