Paris Attack Mastermind Identified; 5 Molenbeek Suspects Released

French police believe they have identified the mastermind of the Paris attacks.

People mourn for the victims of 13/11. (Source: AP)

Brother of Paris Attack Suspect Released; Molenbeek Raid Ends

AFP reports that the Belgian prosecutor has said that five of the seven suspects arrested in the suburb of Molenbeek, Brussels in connection with the Paris attacks have been released.

Among them, released without charge was Mohammed Abdeslam, the brother of suspect suicide bomber Ibrahim Abdeslam.

The Guardian reports that Françoise Schepmans, the local mayor, has said that the Belgian Police have ended their operation in Molenbeek.

Molenbeek Raid Fails to nab Abdeslam

Screengrab of report on the Guardian live blog saying that the Molenbeek raid failed to nab Paris Attack suspect Abdeslam. (Source: Guardian)

The investigation into the Friday attacks in Paris which claimed the lives of 129 people appears to have entered a decisive phase.

Reuters is reporting that the police have arrested one man, identified as Salah Abdeslam, in an operation in Belgium.

Meanwhile The Associated Press is reporting that investigators have identified the mastermind of the attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian.

He is believed to be linked to the thwarted attacks on a Paris-bound high-speed train and Paris area church, according to the official.

Seven gunmen, all of whom were wearing suicide vests packed with explosives, died in the multiple assaults. The first to be identified was Ismael Omar Mostefai, a 29-year-old who lived in the city of Chartres, southwest of Paris.

A senior Turkish government official claimed on Monday that the Turkey government had notified France twice – in December 2014 and June 2015 – about the 29-year-old.

The Paris prosecutor’s office has also spoken about two other suicide bombers involved in deadly attacks in the French capital.

Prosecutors said on Monday that one suicide bomber who blew himself up in the Bataclan music hall on Friday night was Samy Amimour, a 28-year-old Frenchman charged in a terrorism investigation in 2012. He had been placed under judicial supervision but dropped off the radar and was the subject of an international arrest warrant.

Prosecutors say three people in Amimour’s family entourage have been in custody since early Monday.

Another suicide bomber who blew himself up outside the national soccer stadium was found with a Syrian passport with the name Ahmad Al Mohammad, a 25-year-old born in Idlib. The prosecutor’s office says fingerprints from the attacker match those of someone who passed through Greece in October.

(With agency inputs.)