The mother of a Paris suicide bomber says her son ‘did not mean to kill anyone’ – and claims he may have blown himself up because of stress.
Ibrahim Abdeslam, 31, launched a solo attack outside the cafe Comptoir Voltaire, close to the scene of the Bataclan concert hall massacre on Friday night.
His brother Mohamed Abdeslam, a former council worker, was arrested in Molenbeek in western Brussels, a day after the attacks in the French capital, in which at least 129 were killed and hundreds more were injured.
Police missed their chance to bring in the third brother, Salah, when he was questioned as he crossed the border to Belgium after the attacks. He is now the object of a massive international manhunt.
Today their mother defended Ibrahim, suggesting his suicide jacket may have done off by accident and said he could have carried out the attack because he was ‘stressed’.
Salah Abdeslam, 26, from a suburb of Brussels known as the ‘jihadi’ capital of Europe, is now the subject of a vast international manhunt
Incredible footage shows armed officers swarm on at least one man and force him to kneel down as they detain him on a wall as shocked shoppers look on in the St Jans Molenbeek area of Brussels, Belgium, at around 5pm UK time yesterday. It came as Belgian police made seven arrests including five in an district known as a ‘den for terrorists’
Ibrahim Abdeslam, 31, blew himself up in a solo attack outside the cafe Comptoir Voltaire (pictured), close to the scene of the Bataclan concert hall massacre on Friday night
Speaking outside the family home, the Abdeslam family claimed that they were ‘surprised’ that Ibrahim blew himself up near the Stade de France, even though he had spent time in Syria.
Their mother, speaking to a reporter through her nephew – the bombers’ cousin – on the doorstep of the family home in Molenbeek, told Het Laatste Nieuws that they were sure he had not planned to kill anyone
‘This was not his plan, that’s for sure,’ she said. ‘The fact that his suicide belt exploded without killing anyone says a lot.’
The family added: ‘We even saw him two days before the attacks. There were no signs that they has plans to do anything violent.’
The family admitted he had spent ‘a long time’ in Syria.
‘We were really surprised that Salah was involved. Ibrahim was different. We did see that he had been radicalised, at least in part. But not so much that we ever thought he would commit an atrocity like this.’
Ibrahim’s mother has defended her son, suggesting his suicide jacket may have done off by accident and said he could have carried out the attack because he was ‘stressed’
His mother said that the family was sure Ibrahim had not planned to kill anyone when he detonated a suicide bomb outside a busy restaurant in Paris
Another family member at the brothers’ home claimed that he would not have wanted to become a suicide bomber: ‘Maybe the explosives went off prematurely by accident. Maybe it was stress.’
Prosecutors have identified Ibrahim, who seriously injured a bystander when he detonated his suicide bomb, as the man who rented a Seat car used in the attacks.
The vehicle was used by the terrorists who murdered diners outside the Casa Nostra pizza restaurant and the La Belle Équipe cafe.
It was found abandoned 20 minutes away in Montreuil with a cache of weapons inside.
The Cafe Voltaire bomb was one of seven deadly attacks carried out by jihadists on a night of bloodshed in Paris.
PARIS MASSACRE: WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR ABOUT THE DEADLIEST TERROR ATTACK TO HIT EUROPE IN A DECADE
At least 129 people are dead, and another 352 injured, after three teams of jihadis struck the Stade de France football stadium, a handful of bars and cafes, and then finally the Bataclan concert hall.
FIRST TWO ATTACKS: STADE DE FRANCE
- The attacks began at 8.17pm GMT at the Stade de France where the French football team was hosting Germany in an international friendly.
- The game was being watched by 80,000 spectators, among them was President Francois Hollande who had to be evacuated from the stadium.
- The first explosion, a suicide bombing, was at an entrance to the stadium. A suicide bomber approached the gate with a match ticket when he was frisked by a security guard who turned him away.
- He backed away from the gate and detonated his vest at about 8.20pm GMT near Gate D of the stadium, killing one other person. A passport with the name Ahmed Almuhamed, 25, from Syria, was allegedly found nearby.
- A second suicide bomber, Bilal Hadfi, 20, blew himself up near Gate H several minutes later. No one else was reported killed. Hadfi is said to have fought with ISIS in Syria.
THIRD ATTACK: LE PETIT CAMBODGE AND LE CARILLON BAR
- At 8.25pm GMT a separate team of gunmen arrived in a Black Seat and attacked diners at popular Cambodian restaurant Le Petit Cambodge and Le Carillon bar in the trendy Canal Saint-Martin area of eastern Paris, killing 15.
FOURTH ATTACK: LA CASA NOSTRA PIZZERIA AND LA BELLE EQUIPE BAR
- The same unit then drove about 500 yards to La Casa Nostra pizzeria and opened fire on diners on the terrace of the restaurant, killing at least five people.
- From there, the militants drove around a mile south-east – apparently past the area of the Bataclan concert venue – to launch another attack, this time on La Belle Equipe bar in Rue de Charonne. At least 19 people died after the terrace was sprayed with bullets at 8.38pm GMT. The attackers then drove off.
Tearful members of the public view flowers and tributes on the pavement near the scene of the concert hall massacre on Friday
FIFTH ATTACK: CAFÉ ‘COMPTOIR VOLTAIRE’
- Five minutes later, Ibrahim Abdeslam, 31, set off a suicide vest outside the outside cafe ‘Comptoir Voltaire’ on the Boulevard Voltaire and close to the Bataclan theatre. He hired a black Seat car used in the attack.
SIXTH ATTACK: BATACLAN MUSIC HALL
- At 8.49pm GMT, the third group (believed to be three men and a woman) armed with AK-47s stormed the Bataclan music hall and began shooting members of the crowd. Survivors claim three blew themselves up and a fourth person was shot dead by police before they could detonate their bomb.
SEVENTH ATTACK: NEAR STADE DE FRANCE
- At around 8.50pm GMT a third blast took place near the Stade de France, this time by a McDonald’s restaurant on the fringes of the stadium. The boom caused terror among spectators who had already been attempting to flee the stadium following the first two explosions. The attacker who detonated his suicide vest was identified as a 20-year-old French man living in Belgium.
A woman is comforted as she breaks down outside the Carillon cafe and the Petit Cambodge restaurant where victims were gunned down
AFTERMATH:
- On Saturday morning, ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks across Paris, saying ‘eight brothers wearing explosive belts and carrying assault rifles’ conducted a ‘blessed attack on… Crusader France’.
- On Saturday afternoon, three people travelling in a grey VW Polo were arrested at the French/Belgian border when police traced the car after it was sighted outside the Bataclan theatre at the time of the attacks.
- One of the Stade de France suspects was found carrying a Syrian passport under the name Ahmed Almuhamed who travelled to France as a migrant through Greece on October 3. Ferry tickets reveal he travelled with another man named as Mohammed Almuhamed.
- However, the French minister of justice Christiane Taubira said on Sunday that the passport under the name Ahmed Almuhamed was a fake.
- Omar Ismaël Mostefai, 29, from Courcouronnes, Paris was also named as a Bataclan suicide bomber. The petty criminal and father-of-one was known to police as a radical and had travelled to Algeria and Syria. He was identified by the fingerprint on a severed digit found after he detonated his suicide belt.
- Mostefai is believed to have been radicalised by a Belgian hate preacher of Moroccan descent claimed to have regularly preached at his mosque in South West France. His father, a brother and other family members have been held and are being questioned.
- The black Seat Leon used by the terrorists who murdered diners outside the Casa Nostra pizza restaurant and the La Belle Équipe cafe was found abandoned 20 minutes away in Montreuil with a cache of weapons inside.
- Seven people were detained in Belgium linked to the atrocities – three at the border and four in Brussels. Five are from the Molenbeek area of Brussels known as a ‘den of terrorists’.
- Iraqi spies warned the West of an ISIS suicide bomber threat the day before the Paris atrocities, it was revealed on Sunday, as more details of major intelligence failures began to emerge. The US-led coalition in Syria was apparently told by Iraqi security sources that 24 extremists were involved in the terror operation planned in the ISIS capital Raqqa and it would involve 19 attackers including five others including bombmakers and planners. No detail was given of when or where an attack might take place.
- It has also emerged that Turkey’s authorities foiled a plot to stage a ‘Jihadi John revenge attack’ in Istanbul – involving a high-profile British jihadist – on the same day as the deadly massacre in Paris.
- From as far back as August, France’s authorities possessed information that militants were said to be planning attacks on French concert halls after a tip-off was received from a 30-year-old man who was detained on his way back from Syria.
- On Sunday night there were 42 people still said to be in intensive care in hospital following Friday’s terrorist attacks.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
- French police are still hunting for three gunmen on the run, including Brussels-born Frenchman Salah Abdeslam, and an ISIS bombmaker likely to have made the suicide vests.
- An international arrest warrant has been issued for Abdeslam, 26, who is accused of renting a Volkswagen Polo used by the suicide bombers. He is one of three brothers believed to be at the heart of the eight-strong ISIS cell.
- It emerged on Sunday night that police found Abdeslam near the Belgian border early Saturday but let him go after he showed them his ID card. Officers pulled over the car being driven by Abdelslam on Saturday morning on the A2 motorway between Paris and Brussels. Two other men were also in the Seat car. At the time, officers in Paris knew that Abdeslam had rented the car used by the killers which had been abandoned near the theatre but the information had not been transmitted to those responsible for conducting the border checks.
- His brother Ibrahim, 31, blew himself up in a solo attack outside cafe Comptoir Voltaire after renting a black Seat found abandoned today filled with AK-47s and ammunition. A third sibling, named as Mohamed Abdeslam, has been arrested in the Belgian capital.
- On Sunday evening the French defence ministry announced that the country’s warplanes had bombed Islamic State’s stronghold in Syria’s Raqa, destroying a command post and a training camp, the defence ministry said. Ten fighter jets were involved, dropping 20 bombs.
Minutes after Ibrahim launched his solo attack, another group of militants – believed to be three men and a woman – armed with AK-47s stormed the Bataclan music hall and began shooting members of the crowd.
Survivors claim three blew themselves up and a fourth person was shot dead by police before they could detonate their bomb.
Salah Abdeslam, 26, from a suburb of Brussels known as the ‘jihadi’ capital of Europe, is now the subject of a vast international manhunt – but incredibly he was stopped and then released by officers guarding the Belgian border hours after the attacks.
One of his brothers, Ibrahim Abdeslam, 31, was one of seven terrorists who died on Friday night after he blew himself up in a solo attack outside cafe Comptoir Voltaire. He had rented a black Seat found yesterday in Paris packed with AK-47s and ammunition.
The third sibling, Mohammed Abdeslam, was in custody in Belgium last night after being arrested in a Brussels, where the ISIS terror cell may have met before the raid to gather automatic weapons and suicide vests.
Seven people have been detained in Belgium linked to the atrocities – three at the border and four in Brussels. Five are from the Molenbeek area of Brussels known as a ‘den of terrorists’.
Police revealed today they had found the other vehicle used in the terror attacks – a black Seat Leon – abandoned in the Montreuil area of France. The car is not shown in this photo but smashed glass, believed to be from the vehicle, remains on the floor after it was driven off
‘Den of terrorists’: A police car patrols the Molenbeek district of Brussels today after seven arrests in Belgium linked to the Paris terror attack in the past 24 hours
It has emerged that a car rented by Salah Abdeslam was abandoned by the Bataclan Theatre, while a Seat rented by his brother Ibrahim was dumped in Montreull with three AK-47s and some ammunition. Adeslam was questioned as he approached the Belgian border and Sunday morning in a third car which was later abandoned in the Jihadi hotspot of Molenbeek, where he disappeared
French police have said homegrown terrorist Omar Ismaël Mostefai, 29, from Courcouronnes, Paris, was one of the Bataclan suicide bombers where 89 died while Belgian Bilal Hadfi, 20, who had spent time fighting with ISIS in Syria before returning to Europe, detonated his suicide vest at the Stade de France where three died.
One of Bataclan suspects was found carrying a Syrian passport under the name Ahmed Almuhamed who travelled to France as a migrant through Greece and blew himself up at the Stade de France.
Greek ferry tickets reveal he travelled to Europe with another man named as Mohammed Almuhamed.
This morning French security sources claimed the fourth terrorist now identified is Frenchman Samy Aminour, 28, after a series of raids on addresses on the Parisian suburbs of Seine-Saint-Denis and Bobigny linked to his family overnight.
Police believe he was a part of the team of four terrorists who killed 89 at the Bataclan rock gig.
He is said to have been known to French anti-terror police since 2012 when he was prosecuted for trying to flee France for Yemen.
The French interior ministry confirmed that anti-terror police conducted 168 raids across the country overnight.
They have arrested dozens of people following the deadly attacks in Paris on Friday.
Heavily armed tactical units launched dozens of raids in Toulouse, Grenoble, Calais and two Paris suburbs.
Wanted man: Serbian media says this is 25-year-old Ahmed Almuhamed, left and right, whose Syrian passport is pictured, who blew himself up at the Bataclan concert hall and is believed to have sneaked into France with another terrorist by posing as refugees from Syria
Suspect: Belgian Bilal Hadfi, 20, (pictured) who had spent time fighting with ISIS in Syria before returning to Europe and detonating his suicide vest at the Stade de France and French bomber Omar Mostefai, right, killed himself after he attacked the Bataclan concert Hall
Raid drama: This is Osseghem metro station in the Molenbeek neighbourhood of Brussels where several suspects were arrested yesterday
Masked Belgian anti-terror policemen searched for suspects in Molenbeek area of Brussels in connection with the deadly Paris attacks
Officers searched the Molenbeek area of Brussels (pictured), which is home to a large Turkish and Moroccan community, after a parking ticket found on a grey VW Polo parked outside the Bataclan theatre in Paris was found to have been issued from the Brussels district.
They have arrested dozens of suspects and have seized a cache of weapons including a rocket launcher.
The down-at-heel suburb of Molenbeek in Brussels has been dubbed ‘a den of terrorists’ by Belgian media because it has repeatedly featured in attacks
The Islamist who killed people at a Paris kosher grocery in January at the time of the attack on the magazine Charlie Hebdo acquired weapons in the district.
Ayoub El Khazzani, the man behind August’s foiled attack on an Amsterdam-Paris train, had been staying in Molenbeek with his sister before initiating his strike.
Moroccan-born gunman Khazzani, 26, lived with his sister in Molonbeek, Brussels, weeks before his attempted attack on the Thalys train.
He stayed with his sister, who lives on the same road where two of the arrests were made in relation to the Paris attacks.
Several people spotted El Khazzani in the area where his sister lives in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek.
The sister was questioned by anti-terror detectives in Brussels. Now part of their investigation is around whether El Khazzani and the suspects planned the separate attacks.
