Two men who took part in the Paris terrorist attacks, and who died in a police raid days later, appear to have been planning a final assault, aimed at la Defense, the business district west of Paris, the prosecutor investigating the attacks said on Tuesday.
Three people died in the raid last Wednesday on an apartment in the northern Paris suburb of St.-Denis: Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 28, a Belgian militant who had fought for the Islamic State; his cousin Hasna Aitboulahcen, 26; and a man whose identity remains unknown to the authorities.
"Evidence that I cannot and will not be more specific about, and that only emerged on November 19, suggest that the two terrorists, Abaaoud and the man found at his side in the apartment, had a plan that involved blowing themselves up on Wednesday the 18th or Thursday the 19th at la Defense," the Paris prosecutor, Francois Molins, said at a news conference at the Palais de Justice here, suggesting that the raid had occurred just in time.
"In the debris, a 9-millimeter Browning automatic pistol and its empty cartridge clip were found, as well as grenade shrapnel and two explosive vests," Molins said. He said that Aitboulahcen knowingly intervened after the attacks to help shelter her cousin.