Western forces reportedly tried, failed, to kill suspected Paris attack mastermind in Syria

As recently as a few weeks ago, Western military forces were trying to locate Belgian national Abdelhamid Abaaoud in Syria, with the aim of killing him in an airstrike, Western security officials tell The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. French and other Western authorities say that Abaaoud is the likely mastermind behind Friday's attacks in Paris that killed 132 people, though they weren't aware of the Paris plot when they tried and failed to kill him in Syria. They also aren't sure if killing Abaaoud would have prevented or slowed the Paris attack, or if the Islamic State-linked perpetrators would have carried on without him, The Wall Street Journal reports.

European officials say that Abaaoud moved to Syria in 2014 with his 13-year-old brother, then snuck back into Belgium to plan and carry out a terrorist attack in Verviers involving beheading police officers. When police foiled that attack and shot two of Abaaoud's suspected accomplices, he escaped to Syria again, later bragging about evading European authorities in ISIS's magazine. A Belgian court convicted Abaaoud in absentia of recruiting jihadis earlier this year. Western intelligence had been monitoring his communications with Europe, but they didn't strike in part because they weren't sure if it was Abaaoud, 27, or his teenage brother contacting Europe.

Abaaoud may still be in Syria, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told The New York Times on Monday. The Moroccan-born militant is probably part of a recently formed ISIS cell whose goal is to plan and carry out terrorist attacks in France and elsewhere in Europe, Schiff said, but "there are some very large missing parts," like how much of the Paris plot was organized in Syria and how much was left to the individual attackers. The Wall Street Journal has more about Abaaoud and some other people involved in the Paris attacks in the video below. Peter Weber

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