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Police free 5 suspects detained in Paris attack

Posted at 9:58 AM, Nov 16, 2015
and last updated 2015-11-16 09:58:26-05

PARIS -- The latest on the deadly attacks in Paris. (All times EST):

9:40 a.m.

Belgium's federal prosecutor's office says that five of the seven people who were detained over the weekend because of possible links to the Paris attacks have been released.

Two others have been changed with being part of a terror group and links to a terror attack, the office said in a statement.

The office also said that a major police operation in Molenbeek during much of Monday failed to yield any arrests related to the Paris attacks.

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9:35 a.m.

A Turkish security official says authorities have arrested more than half a dozen suspected Islamic State militants who had exchanged messages with the militants in Paris who conducted the deadly attacks across the city.

The security official said Monday that the suspects included a man they believe is associated with Mohammed Emwazi, the Islamic State militant known as "Jihadi John."

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the investigation.

- By Suzan Fraser

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9:15 a.m.

The director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency says the United States has not underestimated the threat posed by the Islamic State group.

John Brennan said Monday the success by the United States and its coalition countries in containing the group's momentum inside Iraq and Syria is "why I think they are looking abroad" to make attacks.

Asked whether the U.S. had underestimated the threat, Brennan said, "I don't think we are underestimating the capability of ISIL," using an alternate name for the group.

He told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, that while it was "inevitable" that the Islamic State will try to carry out such attacks, "to me it is not inevitable that they are going to succeed."

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8:50 a.m.

Czech authorities say they are planning to boost security in the capital on Tuesday, the anniversary of the 1989 anti-communist Velvet Revolution.

Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka says the presence of extra force in the streets of Prague is meant as precaution.

Interior Minister Milan Chovanec says authorities have information some unspecified extremist group might misuse the national holiday but did not give any details.

Chovanec says: "We're ready to show that police is ready to protect the citizens."

Police also say in a statement they plan an increased presence also in other major cities across the country and that the decision is a reaction to the Paris attacks.

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8:40 a.m.

German authorities are investigating claims that an Algerian man warned fellow migrants last week of an imminent attack in Paris.

A spokesman for prosecutors in Arnsberg says the unidentified 39-year-old was detained at a refugee shelter in the western German town, after two Syrian men contacted police Saturday.

Werner Wolff confirmed Monday a report by public broadcaster WDR that the man had told the Syrians that Paris would be subjected to "fear and terror."

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8:35 a.m.

New York Police Commissioner William Bratton says his department is operating as though attacks like those in Paris could happen in New York City.

Bratton said Monday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that his force has beefed up security and staffing, including at the French consulate, France's mission to the United Nations and Times Square.

Bratton says the Paris attackers' use of suicide vests is of particular concern, and officers are trying to learn more about the capability and types of arms used in the vests. He says New York police team will go to Paris this week.

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8:20 a.m.

A local official says the massive police operation in the Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek has ended and that no one was injured.

Mayor Francoise Schepmans said Monday that the operation ended after more than three hours. It was unclear whether there was a major arrest during the operation which centered on a suspect in the Paris attacks.

Two small explosions were heard and dozens of masked and heavily armed security officials had sealed off the area and neighbors were told to stay out of harm's way.

Police arrested three suspects in the impoverished Brussels neighborhood on Saturday and continued house searches.

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8:05 a.m.

Activists say French airstrikes on the northern Syrian city of Raqqa did not kill civilians and only hit military targets in the Islamic State group's de facto capital.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Monday the French targeted military facilities on the northern and southern edges of the city.

He says there are casualties among IS but did not provide numbers.

Sarmad al-Jilane, of the Raqqa-based collective called Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, said the city is tense, with few people venturing out even though markets are open.

France's Defense Ministry said 12 aircraft dropped a total of 20 bombs Sunday night in the biggest air strikes since France extended its bombing campaign against the extremist group to Syria in September.

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8:00 a.m.

The lawyer for Mohammad Abdeslam, one of the brothers of a dead suicide bomber in the Paris attacks, has been released after he had been detained over the weekend. Another brother, Salah Abdeslam, is the object of a massive manhunt.

Brahim Abdeslam died when he detonated his suicide vest on Friday.

Mohamed Abdeslam's lawyer, Nathalie Gallant, told the RTL network that her client "hadn't made the same life choices."

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7:45 a.m.

A French police union is calling for the Molenbeek neighborhood of Brussels, which authorities consider a focal point for extremists and fighters, to come under EU security control, saying the government has ceded the area to the Islamic State group.

The neighborhood, which police raided Monday in a sweep for the fugitive Frenchman suspected in the Paris attacks, was home to the Belgian Islamic State jihadi believed to be behind the attacks and two other thwarted attempts.

The France Police union said Belgium's national institutions failed and demanded "necessary measures to protect the Belgian and European populations from terrorism." The EU has no provisions for the demand, which appeared to be largely a sign of frustration with what some are calling a massive security failure.

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7:40 a.m.

Police were standing guard outside the two major French elementary and high schools in Dublin, Ireland's capital, on Monday. Both schools asked parents to ensure that their children went straight inside to classrooms, not linger outside at the entrance or in playgrounds.

They also said parents seeking to enter the schools would have to identify themselves to security staff and give the reason for their visit.

"There is no particular concern in Ireland, but we must be vigilant," school directors said in a message to parents and the school's approximately 500 pupils, thanking them "for your understanding, your help and your solidarity."

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7:30 a.m.

Two small explosions were heard during a major police action in the Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek amid a manhunt for a suspect in the Paris attacks. Dozens of masked and heavily armed security officials had sealed off the area and neighbors were told to stay out of harm's way.

Police refused to provide any details about who may have set off the explosions or the purpose for them.

Two hours into the siege a first explosion was heard and a similar followed it one hour later on a higher floor of a building with special security forces close by on roofs.

Police arrested three suspects in the impoverished Brussels neighborhood on Saturday and continued house searches. The special action began early Monday.

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7:10 a.m.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron joined French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and other European leaders at a G-20 summit for a minute of silence in honor of the 129 victims Paris attacks.

Standing between the French and the European Union flags, the leaders stood in silence at 1100GMT Monday, at the same time as French President Francois Hollande observed a minute of silence to along with schoolchildren and bystanders in Paris.

Black ribbons were tied around the French and EU flags in a mark of mourning. The leaders were seen hugging Fabius at the end of ceremony.

G-20 leaders are meeting on the sidelines of the summit at the Turkish seaside resort of Antalya to discuss next steps in Syria and the Islamic State campaign

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6:20 a.m.

A Russian official has revealed a possible plot ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, saying female suicide bombers had planned to smuggle explosives onto an aircraft in hand cream.

Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov, who has responsibility for counter-terrorism, said the women were detained in Austria and France.

The head of Russia's FSB security services said in July that many countries had helped to prevent an array of attacks at the Olympics - primarily Austria, France, Germany, Georgia and the U.S. - but no details were given.

The Sochi Games were held amid high concern that insurgents from nearby restive Caucasus republics including Chechnya were planning attacks.

Syromolotov, whose comments were carried by Russian news agencies, spoke Monday before the upper house of Russia's parliament.

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6:05 a.m.

The French president, schoolchildren, bystanders have held a minute of silence to honor the 129 people killed in the country's worst attacks in decades.

President Francois Hollande stood in a crowd of students from Paris' Sorbonne university, some with their heads bowed, others looking up defiantly.

Crowds gathered at a makeshift monument at Republique Plaza in a neighborhood targeted by the attacks, where a banner reads "Can't Scare Us."

Schools and businesses across the country also held a moment of silence.

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5:40 a.m.

Prime Minister David Cameron says seven terror attacks have been foiled in Britain the past six months.

Cameron, speaking on the BBC on Monday, said attacks directed at civilian targets "was the sort of thing we warned about" and that authorities would determine whether further steps are needed to thwart such atrocities.

Cameron announced earlier that his government is doubling spending on aviation security and is recruiting some 1,900 security and intelligence agents.

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5:35 a.m.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve says 168 locations across France have been raided overnight, and 104 people have been placed under house arrest in the past 48 hours.

Cazeneuve said Monday: "It's just a start, these operations are going to continue, the response of the Republic will be huge, will be total. The one who targets the Republic, the Republic will catch him, will be implacable."

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5:30 a.m.

A major action with heavily armed police is underway in the Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek amid a manhunt for a suspect of the Paris attacks.

Police arrested three suspects in the impoverished Brussels neighborhood on Saturday and continued house searches. The special action began early Monday.

Neighbors were told to stay away from the street where masked police have sealed off a section.

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5:15 a.m.

A senior Turkish official says authorities flagged one of the suicide bombers in the Paris attacks to their French counterparts back in 2014 but received no response.

The official said Monday that Turkish authorities identified Omar Ismail Mostefai as a possible "terror suspect" in October 2014. It notified French authorities in December 2014 and in June 2015.

The official said Turkey had no response from France until after the Paris attacks when it requested information on Mostefai.

The Paris prosecutor's office says Mostefai had been flagged as having ties to Islamic extremism five years ago.

The Turkish official said Mostefai entered Turkey in 2013 but authorities have no record of him leaving. He said Mostefai's case shows that intelligence-sharing and effective communication are crucial to counter-terrorism efforts.

The official cannot be named because of rules barring civil servants from speaking to reporters without authorization.

-By Suzan Fraser

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4:50 a.m.

A French official says the suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks was also linked to thwarted train and church attacks.

A French official has identified the suspected mastermind as Belgian Abdelhamid Abaaoud, and says he is believed linked to thwarted attacks on a Paris-bound high-speed train and Paris area church.

The official, who has direct knowledge of the investigation, was not authorized to be publicly identified as speaking about the ongoing probe.

Seven people are in custody in Belgium suspected of links to the attacks and an international arrest warrant has been issued for a Belgian-born Frenchman believed involved in the attacks and who is still at large.

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4:40 a.m.

France is urging its European partners to move swiftly to boost intelligence sharing, fight arms trafficking and terror financing, and strengthen border security in the wake of the Paris attacks.

The top French official in charge of European affairs, Harlem Desir, told reporters on Monday that "clearly, decisions must be taken."

He underlined the need for "cooperation in matters of intelligence, (between) police and the judiciary, the fight against terrorism on European territory."

Desir's remarks came in Brussels ahead of talks with European Union foreign ministers.

He said that "France was attacked, but all of Europe was hit. We were hit together, and we will respond together."

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4:30 a.m.

Britain's government says it is doubling spending on aviation security and is recruiting some 1,900 security and intelligence agents as part of Britain's response to the terror attacks in Paris.

Prime Minister David Cameron announced the actions during the G-20 summit being concluding Monday in Turkey.

Cameron, who, pledged a 15 percent increase in the 12,700-strong staff of the security and intelligence agencies and a doubling of the 9 million pounds ($13.7 million) annual outlay on aviation security. Funds will also be provided for aviation security experts to provide regular assessments of airports around the world.

The steps are part of an extensive review of spending and not a direct response to the Paris attacks.

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4:15 a.m.

The Paris prosecutor's office says two more suicide bombers involved in deadly attacks in the French capital have been identified.

Prosecutors said Monday that one suicide bomber who blew himself up in the Bataclan music hall Friday night was Samy Amimour, a 28-year-old Frenchman charged in a terrorism investigation in 2012. He had been placed under judicial supervision but dropped off the radar and was the subject of an international arrest warrant.

Prosecutors say three people in Amimour's family entourage have been in custody since early Monday.

A suicide bomber who blew himself up outside the national soccer stadium was found with a Syrian passport with the name Ahmad Al Mohammad, a 25-year-old born in Idlib. The prosecutor's office says fingerprints from the attacker match those of someone who passed through Greece in October.