Despite a massive manhunt in Molenbeek, Brussels, Belgian policemen failed to arrest fugitive Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam, who rented the cars used in the attacks; his brother was one of the suicide bombers
Special force officers stand on a rooftop in Rue Delaunoy, Molenbeek.
Brussels: Belgian police launched a major raid in Brussels targeting fugitive Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam yesterday but the operation ended without any arrests, prosecutors said.
Special force officers stand on a rooftop in Rue Delaunoy, Molenbeek. Pic/AFP
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Police, meanwhile, freed one of his brothers without charge, following his arrest at the weekend in the wake of the attacks in which a third Abdeslam brother took part as a suicide bomber, officials said.
Dozens of officers in balaclavas and carrying sub-machineguns surrounded a house in the run-down immigrant area of Molenbeek in western Brussels.
“The operation is over and the result is negative. No one was arrested,” spokesman Eric Van Der Sypt said.
Luck by chance
While being on run after the attacks, Abdeslam had a lucky escape. French police had released him, after questioning him, who later on became the centre of a global manhunt.
Abdelslam was headed for France’s border with Belgium in a car with two persons when the police stopped them on November 13. Hours had passed since Abdelslam was identified as the one who took Volkswagen Polo on rent to carry attackers to the Paris theatre.
Three French police officials and a top French security official all confirmed that officers stopped Abdeslam and checked his ID and then let him go.
‘Dangerous individual’
French national police’s Twitter account describes Abdeslam as a “dangerous individual” and advises anyone who comes across him not to “intervene.”
Belgium had issued an international warrant for his arrest after the Paris attacks. French police had earlier said Abdeslam was the logistics coordinator for the attackers and rented the cars used in the attacks. He is believed to have escaped from the city in one of the cars used in the attack.
Van Der Sypt had earlier confirmed that the raid targeted Abdeslam, a former Brussels tram worker, without saying whether he was in the house. His brother Mohamed Abdeslam was released “without being charged” by Belgian authorities yesterday along with four other suspects who were among seven people arrested in the wake of the carnage in the French capital, Van Der
Sypt said.
Anti-terror raids
Monday’s early morning raids took place in Calais, Toulouse, Paris, Jeumont and Grenoble where police blocked streets and searched houses looking for suspects involved in the attacks. Media reports said about 200 members of police tactical units surrounded an address in Toulouse. Ammunition and a large amount of cash were found at one of the locations.
The key suspect
Abdeslam is the subject of an international arrest warrant by French police after the attack. His brother Brahim was identified by police as the suicide bomber, who detonated his explosive vest on Boulevard Voltaire. Brahim, who lived in Molenbeek, had links to Belgian Islamic State militant Abdul Hamid Abaa Oud
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