Paris attacker linked to Belgian IS cell: Report

Brussels, Nov 16: One of the suicide bombers in the Paris attacks had links to a Belgian Islamic State militant believed to be the mastermind of a jihadist cell dismantled in January, a report said today.

The name of Paris attacker Brahim Abdeslam appears in several police files alongside leading militant Abdelhamid Abaaoud relating to criminal cases in 2010 and 2011, Flemish-language newspaper De Standaard reported.

"Investigators see a link with Verviers," it said, referring to an eastern Belgian town where police shot dead two militants in January and broke up a cell aiming to kill Belgian police officers in the streets days after the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris.

Belgian prosecutors were not immediately available for comment. Abaaoud -- a 27-year-old Belgian of Moroccan descent who allegedly led the group and had fought with the Islamic State group in Syria -- remains at large.

He has claimed in the IS English-language magazine Dabiq to have rejoined the group in Syria.

Both Abdeslam, a Belgium-based Frenchman who blew himself up outside a bar on Boulevard Voltaire, and Abaaoud lived in the Brussels district of Molenbeek which has a reputation as a hotbed of Islamist militancy.

French police have launched an international manhunt for Abdeslam's Brussels-born brother Salah, who is also said to be linked to the Paris attacks.

AFP