The body of the suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, has been identified among those killed in a police raid, the prosecutor’s office said Thursday.
“Abdelhamid Abaaoud has just been formally identified… as having been killed during the raid” in a northern Paris suburb on Wednesday, the prosecutor said in a statement.
Interior Minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said he had received intelligence that 28-year-old Abaaoud passed through Greece on his return from Syria.
It is unclear whether the Belgian had concealed himself among the thousands of migrants arriving in Greece before heading for other EU nations.
One of the other dead Paris attackers, who blew himself up at the Stade de France stadium, was traced to Greece by his fingerprints, where he was registered as a migrant.
Abaaoud, a Belgian jihadist and top Islamic State commander thought to be behind France’s deadliest terror attacks last Friday, was identified using prints.
At least two bodies were found in the apartment in Saint-Denis after a seven-hour shootout and siege with elite police units.
A woman in the apartment detonated her suicide vest and a body was found so riddled with bullets that made it difficult to identify, the prosecutor had earlier said.
