Plans for new attack on Paris foiled as IS 'mastermind' killed by French police

There were claims last night that the IS member who masterminded last Friday’s attack on Paris leaving 129 dead, was himself killed in a shootout at a suburb where a terrorist cell was planning a new attack on the city’s business district.

French SWAT teams swooped and neutralised the cell at the suburb of St Denis at around 4.20am, firing 5,000 rounds during a prolonged battle that left at least two people dead, including a woman who detonated an explosives belt.

The raid had targeted the suspected planner of the attacks, 27-year-old Abdelhamid Abaaoud.

While Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said the identities of the dead were still being investigated, and that neither Abaoud nor the fugitive attacker Salah Abdeslam were in custody, intelligence officials were being quoted as saying Abaoud was the second person killed in St Denis.

The woman who blew herself up is believed to be his cousin Hasna Aitboulahcen, 26.

“At this time, I’m not in a position to give a precise and definitive number for the people who died, nor their identities, but there are at least two dead people,” Mr Molins told reporters.

27-year-old Abdelhamid Abaaoud

Authorities did say the raid was launched after information from tapped phone conversations, surveillance and witness accounts indicated that Abaaoud might be in a safe house in the suburb.

A further eight people were arrested. Among those were two people found in the rubble in the surrounding area, four men arrested in the immediate aftermath of the shootout, and a man and a woman arrested on the street, the man telling reporters he had let the militants use the apartment as a favour to a friend.

“I was not aware it was terrorists,” he said before his arrest.

Meanwhile Mr Molins also told reporters that police found a mobile phone in a bin behind the Bataclan music hall where the majority of last Friday’s victims died. The phone had sent the message “We are off and we’re starting”.

Investigators are trying to determine who the message was sent to.

Elsewhere, Sweden’s security police last night upped its terrorist threat assessment after receiving “concrete information” about a possible attack and issued a warrant for a man’s arrest.

In Honduras, authorities said they detained five Syrians who were trying to reach the US using stolen Greek passports. The passports had been doctored to replace the photographs with those of the Syrians.

Here, new laws allowing Ireland to request the help of foreign special forces in the wake of a terrorist attack will be passed by the Dáil today. The EU directives will also allow top trained gardaí to assist countries, such as France, if requested.

The Criminal Justice (Mutual Assistance) Amendment Bill transcribes eight directives into law here, allowing Ireland and other member states to join forces when fighting terrorism.

While not a direct reaction to the Paris attacks, the measures could be used now if necessary.

“The [Garda] emergency response unit could respond to a terrorism crisis in another country or gardaí could ask for assistance from specialist forces abroad,” said a department of justice source.