(UPDATES can be found at the bottom of this post.)
Following last Friday’s coordinated terrorist attacks, France launched airstrikes on Sunday over Raqqa, Syria. The third day of airstrikes have launched, and French police also conducted a raid in the early hours of Wednesday morning in a Parisian suburb. This is where we pick up with reports from both news outlets and social media.
Witnesses reported hearing gunfire in the Saint-Denis northern suburb. This shooting is a result of a raid on fugitives linked to the Paris attacks. CNN affiliate BFM TV reports officer injuries during the shootout (although police have not officially commented on that detail), which saw some suspects discharging semi-automatic guns.
Saint-Denis is home to the stadium that was one of the attack locations on Friday evening. Seven suspects died during the initial waves of violence. An eighth suspect, Salah Abdeslam, remains at large as the subject of an international arrest warrant. Abdeslam’s older brother has spoken to reporters to urge the suspect to surrender himself. Wednesday morning’s raid was connected to a “so-called ninth suspect,” whose identity has not been revealed.
CNN also reports a series of explosions after the gunfire in Saint Denis. AFP reports two dead after the raid, including a “woman who blew herself up.”
#BREAKING Two dead in Paris siege, including woman who blew herself up: police
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) November 18, 2015
More tweets and videos reveal the violence that unfolded and resulted in a reported three arrests (with updates below).
https://twitter.com/mcmoynihan/statuses/666851293902802944
Police officers injured in Saint Denis, three persons arrested
— Mathieu von Rohr (@mathieuvonrohr) November 18, 2015
https://twitter.com/Chelmih/status/666840125607931904/video/1
https://twitter.com/Chelmih/status/666831607018426368/video/1
UPDATE 2:20 a.m.: CNN further reports that Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected mastermind of Friday’s attacks, was “one of the potential targets of the operation,” although French and Belgian authorities “weren’t certain Abaaoud was at the location when they launched the raid in search of high-priority targets.”
UPDATE 2:45 a.m.: The operation is “coming to an end,” according to CNN, which lists four dead (one civilian plus three terrorists, one of which was the woman wearing a suicide vest). Three suspects have been arrested while one is “still holed up in a building alive.” At least three police are said to be injured from the raid.