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Title: Salah Abdeslam, Suspect in Paris Attacks, Is Captured in Brussels Post by: xht on March 18, 2016, 07:56:14 PM A four-month search for a man believed to be the sole surviving participant in the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris came to an end on Friday when the police shot and captured the suspect, Salah Abdeslam, in a raid in Brussels, the authorities said.
The arrest brought to a close what had been a frustrating hunt for Mr. Abdeslam, 26, a Belgian-born French citizen of Moroccan ancestry who is believed to have driven the car that carried a team of terrorists to the French national soccer stadium outside Paris on Nov. 13. Mr. Abdeslam’s brother Ibrahim blew himself up as a member of a separate team of attackers. “This evening is a huge success in the battle against terrorism,” Prime Minister Charles Michel of Belgium said in a news conference with President François Hollande of France, saying the arrest was the product of a joint operation. Salah Abdeslam is suspected of having dumped his suicide vest in a trash can after the attacks and then fleeing. In the hours after the attacks in Paris, and before his identity was widely known, Mr. Abdeslam was overlooked by the French authorities as he returned to Belgium by car. The streets in Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek, where the raid took place, were packed with journalists and angry onlookers, who have protested what they consider unfair and heavy-handed interrogations by the police since the November attacks. The area was home to a number of the Paris attackers. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/19/world/europe/salah-abdeslam-belgium-apartment.html?ref=world |