An unexpectedly violent confrontation between French police and terror suspects left another two people dead and led to the arrest of seven more terrorists after authorities raided a suburban Paris apartment complex this morning.
FoxNews.com is reporting on the raid that took place this morning at an apartment complex in the north Paris suburb of Saint-Denis. The apartments are just over a mile from the Stade de France stadium which was the target of three suicide bombers last Friday evening in a series of coordinated attacks that left 129 dead and more than 300 wounded in the besieged city.
The raid began when French investigators traced the mastermind of last Friday’s attacks, 27 year-old Belgian ISIS militant Abdelhamid Abaaoud, to the apartment complex. Five officers suffered minor injuries during the ensuing seven-hour stand-off. A police dog was killed along with a terrorist and a female suicide bomber, believed to be Abaaoud’s wife, who blew herself up. The fate of Abaaoud remains unclear as police continue the process of identification of the arrested and the dead.
Residents of Saint-Denis say they were awakened at around 4:00 a.m. (10:00 p.m. EST) by a loud explosion that shook the neighborhood.
“Then there was second big explosion. Then two more explosions. There was an hour of gunfire,” Baptiste Marie, a 26-year-old independent journalist who lives in the neighborhood, told Fox News.
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) another series of at least seven explosions shook the center of town.
By noon local time, the raid was over.
In total, French authorities arrested 25 people and seized 34 weapons in overnight operations throughout the country.
The world has reacted with horror and indignation after Friday’s attacks as well as stepped-up bombing raids of ISIS’ headquarters in Raqqa, Syria by the French military.
Russia joined in the bombing campaign yesterday after announcing that a Metrojet airliner carrying 224 people that crashed en route to St. Petersburg from the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh last month was caused by a home-made bomb containing 1.5kg of explosives. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Pope Francis has condemned the Parisian attacks, saying that “The road of violence and hatred does not resolve humanity’s problems. And using the name of God to justify this road is blasphemy.”
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