After a lot of speculation, a French prosecutor’s office has confirmed that the second body at yesterday’s Saint-Denis raid has been identified as Abdul-Hakim Aba Aoud, the mastermind of Friday’s attacks in Paris. The other body at the site was his cousin.
The raid on the Saint-Denis apartment led to a massive firefight, with Aba Aoud’s cousin detonating a suicide vest, and thousands of bullets being fired. This left officials struggling to identify the body that turned out to be Aba Aoud, which appears to have been accomplished using fingerprints and sole prints.
The 28-year-old Belgian was a figure of some import in ISIS, and at the time of the raid he was the target, though police also conceded they weren’t even sure if he was in France, or in Europe at all, and that he might’ve been in ISIS territory somewhere at the time.
French officials continue to launch raids today seeking more people connected to Friday’s attack, though the only surviving attacker, Saleh Abdeslam, appears to have escaped outright, after being stopped by police three times Friday evening and being let go each time. He was last seen then, headed toward Belgium.
Soldier, yes; mastermind, no. However, the real mastermind, if shrewd, would have convinced Aba Aoud to THINK that the attack was his own idea.
Or perhaps the cigar really is a cigar.
I believe I read another story that recounted how Abaaoud was confirmed dead in 2011. He's such a mastermind he rose from the grave to carry on his fight? INCONCEIVABLE !
I lost count of the number of times al-Qaeda's number two leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was "officially" confirmed dead. But Wikipedia lists him as alive and currently leading AQ.
There were reports a couple of months ago that IS leader Baghdadi was in CIA custody at a hospital in Turkey after being severely wounded in an Iraqi air strike. Now, according to reports, Baghdadi is taking credit for planning the Paris attacks.
I won't be terribly surprised to see a report in a few months that Abaaoud is dead or leading attacks again.
As always, how convenient that the alleged mastermind never gets arrested but ends up dead.
Let's stop using the tired old term "Mastermind". Why not replace it with Mega-brain?