Paris police, special forces arrest 5 in massive Saint-Denis operation

French troops help guard the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis during an anti-terrorism raid — (Image credit: Eric Feferberg/AFP/Getty Images)

In a statement released Wednesday morning, the Paris prosecutors office confirmed that a woman wearing a suicide vest blew herself up in an apartment targeted by anti-terrorism police in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis, and said that three men were arrested in the same apartment. Two more people, a man and a woman, were also arrested near the apartment, the prosecutor's office said, declining to identify any of the suspects. The raid, begun at 4:30 a.m., is still ongoing, according to the prosecutor's office. The target of the raid was Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected mastermind of last Friday's terrorist attacks in Paris (including at the Stade de France, about a mile away from the focus of the raid).

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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.