Suspected architect of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, is dead, the Washington Post reported, citing two intelligence officials.
The Post did not provide details, including the intelligence officials' nationalities. It was not immediately possible to confirm the report.
The Post said a massive police raid killed the suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks during a blitz-style sweep, after investigators followed leads that the fugitive militant was holed up north of the French capital and could be plotting another wave of violence.
More than 100 police and soldiers stormed the building during a seven-hour siege that left two dead including the suspected overseer of the Paris bloodshed, Abaaoud, a Belgian extremist who had once boasted he could slip easily between Europe and the Islamic State (IS) strongholds in Syria.
According to The Post, the confirmation was made after forsenic experts combed through the aftermath — blown-out windows, floors collapsed by explosions — presumably seeking DNA and other evidence. The intelligence officials spoke on condition of anonymity before announcements from authorities.
Paris prosecutor François Molins later told a news conference that Abaaoud had “entrenched himself on the third floor” of the apartment building.
He said he could not yet provide the identities of the two people who died at the scene, but he added that neither Abaaoud nor another wanted suspect, Salah Abdeslam, was among a total of eight people — seven men and one woman — who were detained at the apartment and other locations Wednesday. Three people were arrested in the raid on the apartment, he said, one of whom had a gunshot wound in the arm.
The death of the Abaaoud would close one major dragnet in the international search for suspects from Friday’s carnage that killed at least 129 people and wounded 350 others. At least one other suspect believed closely linked to the Paris attacks remains at large.
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