France identifies suspected Paris attacks mastermind, 2 more attackers

France has three main values, and they are showing up on terrorist attack memorials

(Image credit: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 16 November 2015

The mastermind of Friday's deadly terrorist attacks in Paris is a Belgian national, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who is also suspected to have planned the foiled attack on a high-speed train and other attacks, a French official "who has direct knowledge of the investigation" told The Associated Press on Monday. A "source close to the French investigation" tells Reuters that Abaaoud, 27 and living in Syria, "appears to be the brains behind several planned attacks in Europe."

Also on Monday, Paris prosecutor François Molins identified two more of the suicide bombers: Samy Amimour, a 28-year-old native of France who had an international arrest warrant out on him after France charged him with criminal terrorist conspiracy in 2012; and Ahmad al-Mohammad, born in Syria and found next to a Syrian passport that suggested he snuck in with Syria refugees.

“At this stage, although the authenticity of the passport in the name of Ahmad al-Mohammad, born Sept. 10, 1990, in Idlib, Syria, still needs to be verified, there exists a consistency between the fingerprints of the kamikaze and those taken at a check in Greece in October 2015," Molins said in a statement. France also arrested three members of Amimour's family on Monday. In overnight raids, French police raided 168 locations around France in the past 48 hours placing 104 people under house arrest, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Monday.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.