Hasna Ait Boulahcen
| 2015 Saint-Denis raid | |
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| Part of the aftermath of the November 2015 Paris attacks and Islamic terrorism in Europe | |
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Heavily armed police gather on Rue de la République, near the scene of the raid.
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| Type | Police raid |
| Location |
Saint-Denis, France 48°56′15″N 2°21′14″E / 48.937628°N 2.353782°E |
| Target | Abdelhamid Abaaoud |
| Date | 18 November 2015 04:16 – 11:26 (UTC+01:00) |
| Executed by | |
| Outcome |
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| Casualties |
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The 2015 Saint-Denis raid was a police raid which became a shootout between at least one hundred French police and soldiers and suspected members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.
Following the November 2015 Paris attacks, French police identified Abdelhamid Abaaoud as the suspected mastermind of the attacks. After learning that a relative of Abaaoud might be located in Saint-Denis, police organised surveillance of and ultimately an assault on the location. The raid occurred in the morning of 18 November 2015, five days after the Paris attacks.
Police fired nearly 5,000 rounds during the raid, and French soldiers were reported to have used high-powered munitions on the apartment building, located on rue du Corbillon in Saint-Denis. Abaaoud, a woman named Hasna Aït Boulahcen, and Chakib Akrouh, reportedly a perpetrator in the Paris attacks and suicide bomber in Saint-Denis, were killed, and five people were arrested.
In the early morning of 18 November 2015, French police, including Research, Assistance, Intervention, Deterrence (RAID), backed up by military units, launched an offensive in Saint-Denis against a building presumed to be the location of alleged Paris attacks mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud. The target was a building at 8 rue du Corbillon, less than 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from the Stade de France where three suicide bombings took place on 13 November.
Police said a tip from Morocco had confirmed that Abaaoud was in France. They were aware that Hasna Aït Boulahcen, also of Moroccan origin and well-known to them as a suspect in a drug ring investigation during which her telephone was tapped, was an associate. They followed her to the rue du Corbillon apartment building on 17 November and viewed Abaaoud entering with her.
At 4:20 am the next morning, police launched the full-on assault of a second-story apartment in that Saint-Denis building, believing that Abaaoud was hiding there with at least five accomplices. The initial offensive was repelled by the militants. Explosives laid by police at the entrance were ineffective as the door was armoured, allowing the militants inside time to arm themselves and respond. At 5:55 am, several trucks arrived with reinforcements from France's military along with ambulances to treat the wounded. Deputy Mayor of Saint-Denis Stéphane Peu warned residents to stay indoors and that the explosions were a military operation.
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Wikipedia