Paris Terror Attack Mastermind Killed In Police Raid

The man believed to be the mastermind behind Friday’s Paris terror attacks that resulted in the deaths of over one-hundred people and wounded hundreds more has been killed in a police raid on his location, according to senior European intelligence officials.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the man French authorities say was responsible for coordinating the terror attacks, was killed in a “blitz-style sweep” of jihadi hotbeds, the officials confirmed with the Washington Post.

Over 100 police and military personnel engaged in a seven-hour standoff with Abaaoud and two other fellow militants, who also died in the raid, according to the report. DNA found at the scene confirmed that the Belgian jihadi was neutralized, the intelligence officials said.

The terrorist was holed-up in an apartment in the Saint-Denis suburb of France, and police believe he was linked to a plot to stage another attack in a business district only 10 miles from the capital, the report stated, again citing unnamed police and investigative officials working on the case.

The raid in question appears to be the same operation that occurred Wednesday morning in Saint-Denis, when a female suicide bomber self-detonated her explosive vest after firing her  weapon at French police. An unidentified suspect was killed by a police sniper unit.

Seven others were arrested on the police mission, some parts of which were caught on video by a citizen bystander.

“We could see bullets flying and laser beams out of the window. There were explosions. You could feel the whole building shake,” Sabrine, a nearby neighbor, told Reuters.

The local government has closed Saint-Denis area schools Wednesday and area employees were told to stay home amid the chaos.

It remains unclear if Abdelhamid Abaaoud is the same man as someone referred to by Syrian ISIS members as “Abu Ibrahim Belgian.”

Interviewing a Syrian anti-ISIS activist, Breitbart News reported that the Paris attack may have been planned by Islamic State members in the ISIS-controlled Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor.

A citizen-journalist from Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently told Breitbart News that in February, he had become aware of discussions between Islamic militants, who planned on infiltrating France with two different waves of combatants.

Following the terror attacks, French President Francois Hollande pledged to “destroy” the Islamic State.