Paris ringleader planned suicide attack in business district

Paris, Nov 25: The suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks and an accomplice planned to blow themselves up in a suicide attack on the city's La Defense business district, the chief prosecutor said on Tuesday.

Belgian jihadist Abdelhamid Abaaoud aimed to target the area in the west of the French capital, where many major French companies have their headquarters, in the week after the November 13 carnage, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins told reporters.

Abaaoud was killed in a massive police raid on an apartment in northern Paris five days after the series of suicide bombings and shootings in the capital which killed 130 people.

The prosecutor also revealed that telephone analysis showed that Abaaoud returned to the scene of the attacks while the siege at the Bataclan concert venue was still under way.

The analysis showed he had gone back to the area around the Bataclan in eastern Paris -- where 90 people were killed by three assailants -- while the police operation to free hostages was ongoing.

The analysis "leads us to believe that Abaaoud returned to the scene of the crimes after the attack carried out on the people sitting at tables at restaurants and while the BRI (elite police) were intervening at the Bataclan", the prosecutor said.

Abaaoud had also been in contact by phone with Bilal Hadfi, one of the suicide bombers who detonated his explosives outside the Stade de France stadium, the prosecutor said.

PTI