Two killed in police raid targeting Paris attack commander

A woman blew herself up and a suspected jihadist was killed Wednesday in a massive police assault in Paris targeting the possible mastermind of France's worst-ever terror attacks.

Gunfire and explosions rocked the Saint-Denis area in the north of the city, near the Stade de France stadium, from before dawn as terrified residents were evacuated or told to stay in their homes.

Authorities arrested seven people and five police officers suffered minor injuries in the operation -- a seven-hour stand-off between security forces and a group of people holed up in an apartment.

Black-clad elite police were seen hauling away a naked suspect in the streets near where three suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the football stadium at the start of Friday's attacks.

After the raid, white-suited forensic experts swarmed the building as police tried to verify if Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected mastermind of Friday's attacks in Paris that killed 129 people, had been in the apartment.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said a probe into the attacks allowed police "to obtain telephonic surveillance and witness testimony which led us to believe that Abaaoud was likely to be in an... apartment in Saint-Denis".

However, Molins added it was too early to say if he was among those arrested or killed.

Abaaoud is an Islamic State fighter who was previously thought to be in Syria after fleeing raids in his native Belgium earlier this year.

Residents of the Paris suburb, some of whom were evacuated in their underwear, said they had been caught in a terrifying exchange of fire.

Hayat, 26, had been leaving a friend's apartment where she had spent the night when the shots erupted.

"I heard gunfire," she said. "I could have been hit by a bullet. I never thought terrorists could have hidden here." 

Seven jihadists were killed or blew themselves up in the attacks on the stadium, a concert hall, bars and restaurants that were claimed by the Islamic State group operating in Iraq and Syria.

All of those killed in the attack have now been identified, a statement from the French cabinet said.

Police are hunting for two other individuals, including 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, suspected of taking part in the attacks with his suicide-bomber brother Brahim.

The attack is unprecedented in France, which was shaken to its core for the second time in a year after a three-day jihadist killing spree that left 17 dead on January.

French President Francois Hollande praised security forces for their role in "the particularly perilous and taxing" operation which he said proved the country was involved in a "war against terrorism".

Hollande urged the nation not to "give in to fear" or excessive reactions in the wake of the attacks.


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