French authorities have reported that the brain behind last Friday’s deadly attacks in Paris, the French capital, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, has been killed.
The suspected mastermind of the attacks that left 129 dead was among the two people killed in a police raid in a house in a Paris Suburb on Wednesday, the Paris prosecutor said in a statement on Thursday.
Police had thought that the 27-year-old Belgian militant was in Syria, but he is now confirmed to have been killed in the Wednesday raid.
According to the French Prosecutor’s office, DNA testing was used to identify the militant, whose body was said to be riddled with bullets during the police operation.
The raids, according to authorities, were planned following intelligence got from phones identified on Tuesday from scenes of last week’s attacks.
The United States has hailed the news of Abaaoud’s death, especially the fact that it is coming on the heel of a new video released by ISIS that it plans to attack New York.
Angus King, a Senator and member of the Intelligence Select Committee and Armed Services Committee, told CNN that Abaaoud’s death was good news for Europe, which he said has trouble with its security.
“The best place to kill a snake is at the head,” he said, referring to the central role Abaaoud played in the attacks.