Five days on from one of the most devastating attacks on French soil, residents of St Denis woke up to the sound of rapid gunfire.
Unconfirmed reports insist that the ISIL mastermind behind the 13th November attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, has been killed in a raid on a flat in St Denis, a spot in the northern suburbs of Paris.
It is understood that a 100-strong squadron of anti-terror police stormed Abaaoud's flat, and a fire fight ensued, resulting in 5,000 rounds of ammunition being fired.
The reason why there is great uncertainty about whether Abaaoud is dead is because the bodies found in the flat had been disfigured beyond recognition, by a suicide bomb.
This bloody turn of events comes at a time when it's now believed, contrary to initial reports, that Abaaoud had been masterminding the attacks, not in Syria, but on French soil itself.
Abaaoud was Belgian-born, and believed to have fled to Syria back in 2014, to aid ISIL. His presence in France raises questions about border security in Europe.
French, American and Russian forces continue to pound Syria with air strike after air strike.The i Newspaper reports today that as many as 33 ISIL fighters were killed, just in the last three days worth of air strikes alone.
Russian airliner latest
An online magazine used by ISIL, titled Dabiq, has reportedly gone into detail about how ISIL operatives might have brought down a Russian airliner, over the Sinai.
The article, entitled "Just terror" carried an image of a can of fizzy pop, alongside two suspicious-looking components..
The operatives reportedly "discovered a way to compromise the security at Sharm el-Sheikh airport", by seemingly concealing an explosive device inside a similar can of fizzy drink.
Russian investigators claimed this week that the airliner had been brought down by a homemade explosive, "with the power of 1.5kg of TNT".
No comments:
Post a Comment