Paris attacks ringleader, Abaaoud, killed in raid

Hamilton Nwosa
Writer

Ad

Trump Blasts Nobel Committee for ‘Choosing Politics Over Peace’ After Prize Snub

By Obinna Uballa The United States government has blasted the Norwegian Nobel Committee for what it described as a politically motivated decision after President Donald Trump was overlooked for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize. In a strongly worded statement posted early Friday on X (formerly Twitter), White House Communications Director Steven Cheung accused the committee…

Federalism and Electoral Integrity: Bridging the Gap Between Nigeria and the USA

By Sonny Iroche In the tapestry of modern democracies, few threads are as intricate as federalism, the delicate balance of power between central authority and subnational entities. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and a federal republic since its independence in 1960, has long modeled its governance after the United States, the cradle of modern federalism.…

Senate Issues Ultimatum to Finance Ministry to Submit 2024 Budget Performance Report

By Abiola Olawale The Nigerian Senate has handed the Finance Ministry a two-week deadline to deliver a detailed performance report on the 2024 budget. The New Diplomat reports that the directive emerged from a high-stakes closed-door meeting at the National Assembly between the Senate Committee on Finance and President Bola Tinubu's economic team. Led by…

Ad

77241c12-963e-4828-96f8-a3c96162face_500THE ringleader in last week’s bloody terrorist attacks in Paris was killed in a pre-dawn raid on Wednesday on an apartment building north of the French capital, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced yesterday.

Authorities zeroed in on a building in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis after picking up phone conversations indicating that a relative of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who authorities believe coordinated the shootings and bombings that killed 129 people, may have been there, a Belgian counterterrorism official said.

French police believed Abaaoud himself was then still in the country, though they didn’t know exactly where. Some residents in Saint-Denis told CNN that they had seen Abaaoud recently in the neighborhood and at a local mosque.

It turned out Abaaoud was in that building in Saint-Denis. And after a violent firefight that included explosions and gunfire, he was dead.

In a statement released yesterday, the Paris prosecutor’s office said that Abaaoud’s body was found in the Saint-Denis building riddled with bullets. The office said that he was positively identified using papillary prints, which include patterns on fingers, palms and the soles of the feet.

Exactly how he died, at this point, isn’t known. Police fired around 5,000 rounds of ammunition in the confrontation and used strong munitions that spurred a floor to collapse.

The prosecutor’s office said yesterday that authorities still don’t know whether Abaaoud blew himself up or not. That’s what officials say happened with the raid’s only other fatality, that of a woman suicide bomber that Belgian state broadcaster RTBF reported was Abaaoud’s cousin.

Ad

Unlocking Opportunities in the Gulf of Guinea during UNGA80
X whatsapp