New arrest in Paris attacks linked to apartment raid

Unnamed suspect, 25, said to have helped provide housing for terror assault mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud

By PHILIPPE SOTTO 2 December 2015, 2:55 pm

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Members of the BRI, a special unit of the French police, at work in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis city center, on November 18, 2015. (AFP/Kenzo Tribouillard)

PARIS, France (AP) — French police have arrested two people outside Paris — one of them for suspected links to the only man charged in connection with the Nov. 13 attacks in the capital, according to two officials close to the investigation.

The first arrest on Tuesday was of a 25-year-old man suspected of being an intermediary to Jawad Bendaoud, who already has been handed preliminary charges for providing housing to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected planner of the Paris attacks that killed 130 people.

The intermediary, whose name wasn’t disclosed, was arrested in his home in Malakoff, south of Paris by counterterrorism police, officials said. A few hours later, police went with the suspect to search another apartment in Saint-Denis, a northern Paris suburb, and arrested a woman who was there.

This undated image taken from a jihadist website on Monday Nov. 16, 2015 shows Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected mastermind of the Paris terror attacks on November 13, smiling before dragging mutilated bodies behind his truck in Syria. (Jihadist video via AP)

The officials, who requested anonymity to talk about the ongoing investigation, told The Associated Press that the woman, whose name also wasn’t revealed, is the partner of the intermediary. The man and his partner have been taken into custody west of Paris. Officials didn’t give details on whether the woman had links to Bendaoud or anyone else suspected of having involvement in the attacks.

The intermediary, who had been known by police only for drug trafficking so far, was also in contact with Abaaoud’s cousin, Hasna Aitboulahcen.