French authorities identified Sunday one of the eight Paris attackers killed in a series of planned shootings and bombings in the city and have arrested some of the man’s family members.
French prosecutors identified the man as Ismael Omar Mostefai as one of the attackers killed in the attacks Friday night, according to Sky News. Paris prosecutor’s office spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre said some of Mostefai’s family members have been arrested but refused to further comment on how many had been detained but said searches were underway.
Sky News reported Mostefai is a French citizen, born in Courcouronnes, Essone in November 1985 and lived in Chartres, southwest of the capital. Paris prosecutor Francois Molins told Sky News Mostefai had a criminal record and was known to security services, but never spent time in jail.
"He caught police's attention due to the violation of public power,” Molins said. “From 2004 to 2010, he was pronounced guilty eight times, but has never been in prison. In 2010, he was blacklisted by the police due to extreme behaviours, but never been classified into any illegal extremist groups."
Eight terrorists wielding AK-47s and wearing suicide belts carried out a series of coordinated attacks at six sites around Paris Friday night, killing at least 129 people and wounding at least 352 others.
French President Francois Hollande called the attacks an “act of war” in a Saturday morning nationally televised press conference. Hollande vowed France “will be merciless toward the barbarians of Islamic State group.”
Earlier Saturday, Belgian police arrested three in connection with the terror assaults. Belgium Justice Minister Koen Geens told the VRT network that the arrests came after a car with Belgian license plates was seen Friday night close to the Bataclan concert hall, scene of the deadliest assault where at least 89 people were massacred by attackers armed with AK-47s and explosives.
Geens said the car was a rental and the arrests stemmed from police raids conducted in the St. Jans Molenbeek neighborhood in Brussels.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the apparent meticulously planned attacks and has warned that France would remain at the “top of the list of targets” over its airstrike on the militant group in Syria and Iraq.
ISIS, in an online statement, described Paris as "the carrier of the banner of the Cross in Europe" and described the attackers as "eight brothers wrapped in explosive belts and armed with machine rifles."
A Syrian passport was found on the body of a suicide bomber at Paris stadium. It was unclear if the identified attacker was the one with the passport on him. Molins told Sky News the passport was found at the Stade de France bombing site and belonged to a Syrian citizen born in 1990.
French police said Saturday they believed all of the attackers were dead but were still searching for possible accomplices. The French prosecutor's office said seven of the eight assailants died in suicide bombings, the Associated Press reported.
The Associated Press contributed to this repor
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