Suspected architect of Paris attacks killed in raid: Washington Post

Suspected architect of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was killed in a police raid in the suburb of the city, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing two intelligence officials.

The Post did not provide details, including the intelligence officials' nationalities, and Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.
 
French investigators, however, said they could not yet identify those killed in the raid but the suspected mastermind of the attacks in Paris was not among those arrested in the operation, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said.
 
The raid in Paris suburb St Denis was staged after receiving a tip on Monday that Abaaoud was in France, he said.
 
He was until then believed to be in Syria.
 
"I am not able to give you a definite number and the identities of the dead but there are at least two dead," Molins said at a news conference.
 
"I can say that Abaaoud and Salah Abdeslam are not among those taken into detention," he said, referring to the suspected mastermind and a suspected attacker who escaped to Belgium by car early on Saturday morning.

"A body riddled with impacts was found in the debris of the building. The state of the body has not permitted, at this stage, to identify it," he added. A woman blew herself up with a suicide vest.

Police fired 5,000 rounds during the early morning siege on the third-floor apartment, leaving the building at risk of collapsing in certain places and slowing down the investigation, Molins said.

He said investigators could not identify three men detained in the raid on an apartment in the St Denis area north of Paris. Overall seven men and a woman were arrested at the apartment or nearby.