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Paris hunts down connections to ISIS attacker

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Paris hunts down connections to ISIS attacker

A black Seat car used by gunmen who fired at people in restaurants during the attacks in Paris on Friday has been found in the eastern suburb of Montreuil, police said Sunday.

Six people close to Omar Ismail Mostefai, who took part in the killings at the Bataclan concert hall and the first of Friday’s attackers to be identified, have been detained, including his father, brother and sister-in-law, judicial and police sources said.

The body of the 29-year-old French national was found and identified at the Bataclan music hall where 89 people were shot dead Friday when three gunmen wearing suicide vests opened fire on spectators in the bloodiest of a string of attacks in Paris blamed on Islamists.
France’s worst ever attacks killed at least 129 people and left 352 injured, many in critical condition. Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Sunday that 103 bodies had been identified, with 20 to 30 more still awaiting identification.

“They will be (identified) in the coming hours,” said Valls outside the Ecole Militaire where a center has been set up for victims’ families. The death toll has been put at least 129.

Investigators were also searching the homes of friends and relatives of Mostefai, another source close to the enquiry said.

 

Infographic: Mapping the Paris attacks

 

The father’s house is located in the small town of Romilly-sur-Seine, some 130 kilometres (80 miles) east of Paris, while his brother’s is south of Paris in the Essonne region.

The brother, who is 34, contacted the police on his own initiative and was then taken into custody.

 

 

French military patrol near the Eiffel Tower the day after a series of deadly attacks in Paris , November 14, 2015

 

The Frenchman confirmed as one of the attackers was known to police as being close to radical Islam but had never been linked to a terrorism enquiry, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said earlier Saturday.

He was identified via a severed fingertip.

 

 

A person is being evacuated from the Bataclan theater after a shooting in Paris, Friday Nov. 13, 2015

 

Prosecutor Molins said seven gunmen were killed in the attacks, which were the work of three coordinated teams. Six of them blew themselves up while one was shot by police.
The attacks were claimed by extremist group ISIS, which France is targeting with airstrikes on Syria.
Seven “terrorists” were killed in attacks that caused the deaths of the 129 people in Paris and a Syrian passport was found on one of the assailants, the French capital’s prosecutor said Saturday.
Prosecutor Francois Molins said the attackers had worked in three teams, striking seven times in quick succession on Friday night. The prosecutor meanwhile said it was not clear to whom the passport belonged to.

 

 

Spectators invade the pitch of the Stade de France stadium after the international friendly soccer France against Germany, in Saint Denis

 

Previously, the prosecutor said there could be eight gunmen killed across the capital, with more still at large behind seven attacks in Paris.
Al Arabiya News Channel’s correspondent initially reported that Syrian and Egyptian passports were found near the bodies of the assailants involved in a wave of deadly attacks on Paris.

 

 

 

French police so far reported that a Syrian passport was found but did not say where exactly it was found, although they indicated a possible Syrian connection was a working hypothesis for investigators.

AFP, Al Arabiya News Sunday, 15 November 2015