18/03/2016

'We got him' - Paris suspect Salah Abdeslam captured in Brussels raids

Police at the scene of a security operation in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek in Brussels, Belgium, March 18, 2016. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

• Paris attack suspect Salah Abdeslam 'arrested and wounded'

• Three suspects were detained in the Brussels raid
• Another unnamed suspect reportedly killed after shootout

• Abdeslam's fingerprints found in earlier Brussels raid
• Brussels suburb notorious as base for the terrorists
• Belgian immigration minister: "We got him."
Police at the scene of a security operation in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek in Brussels, Belgium, March 18, 2016. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
One of the main suspects in the Paris attacks from last November, Salah Abdeslam, has been captured in a security operation in Brussels this evening.
It is reported that Abdeslam, the 26-year-old French suspect, was shot in the leg and has been taken to hospital under heavy security.
Television footage showed armed security forces dragging a man with a sack on his head out of a building and into a car.
Police at the scene of a security operation in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek in Brussels, Belgium, March 18, 2016. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir15
Police at the scene of a security operation in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek in Brussels, Belgium, March 18, 2016. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
Belgian prime minister said tonight: "This evening is a success in fight against terrorism."
The Belgian Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration, Theo Francken, confirmed the news that Abdeslam had been arrested on Twitter.
Police at the scene of a security operation in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek in Brussels, Belgium, March 18, 2016. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir15
Police at the scene of a security operation in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek in Brussels, Belgium, March 18, 2016. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
He simply tweeted: "We got him".
The police operation that captured the most wanted fugitive from November's Paris attacks four months ago ended this evening before 7.40pm.
Police at the scene of a security operation in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek in Brussels, Belgium, March 18, 2016. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir15
Police at the scene of a security operation in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek in Brussels, Belgium, March 18, 2016. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
Several bursts of gunfire rang out earlier in the capital's Molenbeek area - the scene of past investigations into the Paris attacks - and police officers were seen surrounding an apartment block there from around 4 pm. (3pm Irish time)
Police at the scene of a security operation in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek in Brussels, Belgium, March 18, 2016. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir15
Police at the scene of a security operation in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek in Brussels, Belgium, March 18, 2016. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
Belgian Police descended in force late this afternoon to search a residence in the Molenbeek neighbourhood of Brussels.
Today's caputure of Abdeslam comes after Belgian authorities said they found his fingerprints in an apartment raided earlier this week in another Brussels neighbourhood.
Police officers guard an entrance of a school during a raid in the Molenbeek neighborhood of Brussels, Belgium15
Police officers guard an entrance of a school during a raid in the Molenbeek neighborhood of Brussels, Belgium
In that raid, a man believed to have been an accomplice of Abdeslam - Mohamed Belkaid - was shot dead, Belgian prosecutors say. But two men escaped from the apartment, one of whom appears to have been Abdeslam.
Federal prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt said it was possible Abdeslam had spent "days, weeks or months" in the apartment.
Abdeslam fled Paris after the November 13 attacks. Most of the Paris attackers died that night, including Abdeslam's brother Brahim, who blew himself up.
Brussels-born Salah Abdeslam, a childhood friend of suspected ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud, is believed to have driven a group of gunmen who took part.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks, in which Belgian nationals played key roles.
On Tuesday, a joint team of Belgian and French police showed up to search a residence in the Forest area of Brussels in connection with the Paris investigation, and were unexpectedly fired upon by at least two people inside. Four officers were slightly wounded.
An occupant of the residence was shot dead by a police sniper as he prepared to open fire on police from a window. Police identified him as Belkaid, 35, an Algerian national living illegally in Belgium.
A Kalashnikov assault rifle was found by his body, as well as a book on Salafism, an ultraconservative strain of Islam. Elsewhere in the apartment, police found an Islamic State banner as well as 11 Kalashnikov loaders and a large quantity of ammunition, the prosecutor said.
Belgian authorities initially said Belkaid had no known background in radical Islamic activities. But by Friday afternoon, prosecutors issued a statement saying he was "most probably" an accomplice of Abdeslam who had been using a fake Belgian ID card in the name of Samir Bouzid.
A man using that ID card was one of the two men seen with Abdeslam in a rental car on the Hungarian-Austrian border in September.
Four days after the November 13 Paris attacks, the same false ID card was used to transfer money to Hasna Ait Boulahcen, Abaaoud's niece. Both Ait Boulahcen and Abaaoud died afterward in a police siege.
Abdeslam slipped through a police lockdown to return to Brussels after the bloodbath in Paris, and though the target of an international manhunt, has not been found since.
In January, Belgian authorities said one of his fingerprints was found alongside homemade suicide bomb belts at an apartment in another area of Brussels.
Belgian prosecutors said it was not known whether he had been at the address in the Schaerbeek district before or after the Paris attacks, or how long he had spent there.
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