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PARIS (AP) — French police hunted Tuesday for a second terrorist believed to have escaped after the bomb and gun massacres in Paris, while a U.S. official revealed that the suspected mastermind was part of an Islamic State cell that American intelligence agencies had been tracking for months.
Meanwhile, France and Russia unleashed a new wave of airstrikes against IS targets in Syria, while fears of further terror attacks deepened in Paris and beyond. The Eiffel Tower closed to the public just a day after it had reopened and a soccer match between Germany and the Netherlands was canceled due to a bomb threat just 90 minutes before kickoff.
Islamic State militants have claimed responsibility for the Friday the 13th attacks that targeted France's national soccer stadium, a packed concert hall and popular restaurants and cafes in one of Paris' trendiest neighborhoods, killing 129 people and wounding more than 350.
French authorities had previously said that at least eight people were directly involved in the bloodshed Friday: seven who died in the attacks and one who got away and slipped across the border to Belgium. However, there have been gaps in officials' public statements, which have never fully disclosed how many attackers took part in the deadly rampage.
On Tuesday, officials disclosed to The Associated Press that they now believe at least one more attacker was involved than was previously known, and they were working to identify and track down that suspect. Three officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to provide details about the ongoing investigation.
A new surveillance video obtained by the AP indicated that a team of three attackers carried out the shootings at one of the cafes. The video was among evidence authorities used in concluding that at least one other attacker was at large, the French officials indicated.
The brief clip shot from a distance shows two black-clad gunmen with automatic weapons calmly firing on the bar then returning toward a waiting car, whose driver was maneuvering behind them. Authorities believe that car is the same black Spanish-made SEAT vehicle that was found abandoned Saturday with three Kalashnikovs inside. In the footage, as the gunmen fire their rifles, patrons can be seen falling down on the pavement as others dashed or crawled away. The encounter lasted only seconds.
Previously officials had not specified how many people were involved in the attack on the sidewalk bar on La Fontaine au Roi street, as well as the other night spots.
In all, six attackers died after detonating suicide belts and one was killed by police gunfire. A manhunt has been mounted for an eighth suspect, Salah Abdeslam, whom French police accidentally permitted to cross into Belgium on Saturday. One of his brothers, Brahim, was among the attackers who blew themselves up in Paris. Another brother, Mohamed Abdeslam, was arrested after the attacks but released. In an interview Tuesday with French TV station BFM, he urged his brother to turn himself in.
Two men arrested in Belgium, meanwhile, admitted driving to France to pick up Salah Abdeslam early Saturday, but denied any involvement in the attacks, their lawyers said.
Mohammed Amri, 27, and Hamza Attou, 21, are being held on charges of terrorist murder and conspiracy. Belgian media reported the two were being investigated as potential suppliers of the suicide bombs used in the attacks, since ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer that can be used to make explosives, was discovered in a search of their residence.
More details emerged about the brothers' activities leading to the attack. Salah and Brahim Abdeslam booked a hotel in the southeastern Paris suburb of Alfortville and rented a house in the northeastern suburb of Bobigny several days before, a French judicial official told AP, speaking on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak about the ongoing investigation.
Austria's Interior Ministry also disclosed that Salah Abdeslam had entered Austria about two months ago with two unidentified companions.
Officials have identified 27-year-old Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian of Moroccan descent, as the mastermind of the attacks. He is believed to be in Islamic State-held territory in Syria.
A U.S. official briefed on intelligence matters said Abaaoud was a key figure in an Islamic State external operations cell that U.S. intelligence agencies have been tracking for many months.
Analysts have been debating to what extent the Islamic State group was devoting resources to external terrorist attacks, versus seeking to hold onto the territory it has seized in Iraq and Syria. A consensus is now emerging that the group is more focused on exporting terror than had been widely understood.
U.S. intelligence agencies have some insights into who is involved in that effort, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. But their understanding is hampered by the many challenges of gathering intelligence in Syria, where the CIA does not have a regular presence on the ground
The chairman of the Senate intelligence committee said Tuesday that it was likely that militants plotting the attacks in Syria, Belgium and France used encryption to hide their communications from authorities. Sen. Richard Burr, R-North Carolina, said there was no direct evidence of encryption, but that authorities had concluded it was used because they have uncovered no evidence of conversations among the plotters.
The statement acknowledges the challenges intelligence agencies face in monitoring records of international phone traffic.
Speaking to reporters after a classified intelligence briefing, Burr also said there is a "strong likelihood" the Paris attacks were directed, rather than just inspired, by the Islamic State group in Syria.
The comments were the strongest public attribution yet by American officials. CIA director John Brennan said Monday the attack bore "the hallmarks of terrorism carried out" by the Islamic State group.
Tensions remained high in much of Europe in the wake of the attacks. In Paris, the Eiffel Tower shut down again after opening for just a day Monday, and heavily armed troops patrolled the courtyard of the Louvre Museum. In the German city of Hannover, an exhibition soccer game between Germany and the Netherlands was canceled at the last minute and the stadium evacuated by police because of a bomb threat. Top government officials, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, had been scheduled to attend the game as a sign of defiance.
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Associated Press writers Karl Ritter, Matthew Lee and Jill Lawless in Paris, Ken Dilanian in Washington and Raf Casert and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
This is Sept. 11 for Europe.
–Panagiotis Kammenos, Greek defense minister
Authorities have yet to announce the capture of anyone suspected of direct involvement in the slaughter on Friday, though police have used emergency powers to conduct almost 300 searches that have netted 127 arrests and 31 weapons.
Seven of the Paris attackers died Friday — six after detonating suicide belts and a seventh from police gunfire — but Iraqi intelligence officials told The Associated Press that its sources indicated 19 had participated in the Paris attacks and five others had provided hands-on logistical support.
As an international police manhunt continued for fugitive Salah Abdeslam, German police said three people were arrested Tuesday in the case by a SWAT team near the western city of Aachen, close to the border with Belgium. They were not Germans, police spokesman Werner Schneider said. Local media said two women and one man were arrested as they left a job center.
Two brothers linked to the Paris attacks both rented lodgings in the French capital days prior to the carnage, a French judicial official told The Associated Press.
Brahim Abdeslam, who died Friday, and Salah Abdeslam booked a hotel in the southeastern suburb of Alfortville and rented a house in the northeastern suburb of Bobigny several days before the attacks, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak about the ongoing investigation.
Meanwhile, another car with Belgian license plates and a shattered front passenger window found Tuesday in northern Paris could be linked to the attacks, officials said. It was the third vehicle identified as having possible links to the investigation.
Belgium said it would deploy up to 300 extra soldiers to help provide security in major cities, bringing the total number in the streets to 520.
In Belgium, a lawyer for one of the two people arrested there said his client admits going to France, but only to pick up a friend. Defense lawyer Xavier Carrette told the APs that his client, 27-year-old Mohammed Amri, was arrested over the weekend and is being held on charges of terrorist acts and being part of a terrorist conspiracy.
Noting that victims of the attacks came from at least 19 nations, Hollande says the international community, led by the U.S. and Russia, must overcome their deep-seated divisions over Syria to destroy IS on its home turf.
"(Syria is) the biggest factory of terrorism the world has ever known and the international community is still too divided and too incoherent" in its response, Hollande said, adding that the "acts of war" in Paris were decided upon and planned in Syria.
A cease-fire between Syria's government and the opposition — which would allow nations supporting Syria's various factions to focus more on IS — could be just weeks away, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said. He described it as potentially a "gigantic step," opening the way for deeper international cooperation.
Kerry flew to France as a gesture of solidarity and met Hollande and Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Tuesday.
Standing with Hollande at the Elysee Palace, Kerry said the carnage in the French capital, along with recent attacks in Egypt, Lebanon and Turkey, made it clear that more pressure must be brought to bear on Islamic State extremists.
French and other Western intelligence agencies are facing an urgent challenge to track down the surviving members of the three Islamic State cells that inflicted the unprecedented bloodshed in Paris and, perhaps more importantly, to target their commanders in IS-controlled parts of Syria.
A French security official said anti-terror intelligence officials had identified Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian of Moroccan descent, as the chief architect of the attacks on a Paris concert hall, a French soccer game and popular nightspots in one of Paris' trendiest districts.
The official cited chatter from IS figures that Abaaoud had recommended a concert as an ideal target for inflicting maximum casualties, as well as electronic communications between Abaaoud and one of the Paris attackers who blew himself up. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive investigation.
Abaaoud came to public attention last year by boasting in an IS propaganda video about his pride in piling the dead bodies of "infidel" enemies into a trailer.
Anti-terror agencies have previously linked him to a series of abortive shooting plots this year in Belgium and France, including a planned attack on a train that was thwarted by American passengers who overpowered the lone gunman.
Still, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve conceded that "the majority of those who were involved in this attack were unknown to our services."
In Paris, the Eiffel Tower shut down again Tuesday, after opening for just a day Monday, and heavily armed troops patrolled the courtyard of the Louvre Museum.
In a show of solidarity, British Prime Minister David Cameron will be joining Prince William at a friendly soccer match Tuesday night between England and France in London's Wembley Stadium. Armed police were to patrol the site and British fans, in a show of solidarity, were encouraged to sing the French national anthem as well.
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Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Jill Lawless in Paris, and Raf Casert and Lorne Cook in Brussels, contributed to this report.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
