:00:00. > :00:00.it. A group he says wants to destroy the very heart of what France means
:00:00. > :00:11.not only to its people but what it represents around the world. You are
:00:12. > :00:12.watching BBC News. Explosions and gunfire before dawn as armed police
:00:13. > :00:21.raid flat in northern Paris. Two people in the flat died in
:00:22. > :00:45.the dawn raid - one was a female Seven people have been arrested.
:00:46. > :00:49.Police had been hunting Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the man thought to be the
:00:50. > :00:55.mastermind behind Friday's attacks. TRANSLATION: It is the entire
:00:56. > :01:00.country that has been attacked, because of the values it holds, the
:01:01. > :01:01.combat it is pursuing to eradicate terrorism, and for the simple reason
:01:02. > :01:30.for what we are. The area was swarmed by riot police
:01:31. > :01:35.and the military, seven hours later the tally was too dead and seven
:01:36. > :01:45.arrested. Ben Brown has more in Paris -- two dead.
:01:46. > :01:54.Good afternoon from Saint Denis, in the road behind me, French police
:01:55. > :02:02.and troops began a massive security operation, a raid on a flat where
:02:03. > :02:05.they believed a terror cell was. There was explosions and gunfire for
:02:06. > :02:11.several hours and at the end of it, one female suicide bomber blew
:02:12. > :02:16.herself up, another gunman inside the flat is thought to have been
:02:17. > :02:23.killed, perhaps by a police sniper, and seven people have been arrested.
:02:24. > :02:30.We can show you where we are, we are in the north of Paris, in the Saint
:02:31. > :02:38.Denis, less than a mile away from the Stade de France, where some of
:02:39. > :02:43.the attacks took place on Friday. The man they were hunting, the
:02:44. > :02:46.mastermind behind Friday's attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, he is the man
:02:47. > :02:53.they thought could be in this flat, but his whereabouts are still
:02:54. > :02:57.unknown. In a moment, the latest on the implications of this raid, and
:02:58. > :02:59.France's fight against Islamic State, but now a report on today's
:03:00. > :03:06.dramatic events. Woken by a noise outside,
:03:07. > :03:09.this resident of Saint-Denis opens a window and
:03:10. > :03:12.starts filming on a mobile phone. Heavy gunfire resounds through
:03:13. > :03:20.the streets. It was a pitched battle
:03:21. > :03:43.between police and terror suspects. Through their windows residents
:03:44. > :03:45.watched the operation unfold. This man was among them, he was woken by
:03:46. > :03:49.what he called a deafening blast. I jumped out of bed, he said, opened
:03:50. > :03:57.the window and put my head outside. The police said, no, shut
:03:58. > :04:01.the window, close it, close it. The police operation focused
:04:02. > :04:04.on an apartment containing at least five people thought to be involved
:04:05. > :04:08.in Friday night's massacre. The authorities say a woman
:04:09. > :04:11.in a suicide vest blew herself up This woman was in the flat
:04:12. > :04:19.below during the raid. There were so many explosions,
:04:20. > :04:24.it was as if the ceiling of I got out of the bathroom,
:04:25. > :04:28.I tried to protect myself, Two more suspects were taken
:04:29. > :04:46.into custody from inside the flat. And there were other arrests
:04:47. > :04:52.outside the building. Someone asked me to put two people
:04:53. > :04:59.up for three days and I did them I don't know where they came from,
:05:00. > :05:02.I don't know anything. If I'd known,
:05:03. > :05:05.do you think I would have done it? Police believe one of those
:05:06. > :05:08.in the apartment was this man, President Hollande said that France
:05:09. > :05:22.have planned Friday's attacks, and President Hollande said that France
:05:23. > :05:29.was at war with the so-called Islamic State were and he praised
:05:30. > :05:33.the security forces. TRANSLATION: I would like to express our gratitude
:05:34. > :05:37.and admiration for those that took part in the operation, they knew the
:05:38. > :05:43.danger, but they fought until the end of their mission. Outside the
:05:44. > :05:49.apartment, there is still a heavy police presence, and roads around
:05:50. > :06:00.the area remained sealed off and security forces are still on high
:06:01. > :06:01.alert. For people in Paris, there appears to be some good news, after
:06:02. > :06:16.so much pain. President Hollande has said what has
:06:17. > :06:21.happened confirms his view that France is at war with terrorism and
:06:22. > :06:27.with the so-called Islamic State. You were here when the explosions
:06:28. > :06:30.were ringing out? The first wave began at 320 in the morning, and
:06:31. > :06:35.then a second round was heard, we think they might have been stun
:06:36. > :06:38.grenades going into the building. At that moment the police when a very
:06:39. > :06:41.tense mood, keeping everyone as far back as they possibly could. As soon
:06:42. > :06:46.as the second volley had gone on the as the second volley had gone on the
:06:47. > :06:51.mood completely changed, and it was very clear very quickly that this
:06:52. > :06:56.operation was almost over. But the real issue that the authorities have
:06:57. > :07:02.to face, this was a woman who died and blew herself up with a suicide
:07:03. > :07:04.vest. She had a suicide vest for a reason, and the authorities will
:07:05. > :07:10.want to find out what the target was, and if there was one suicide
:07:11. > :07:15.vest, are there any more? Thank you very much. Our reporter, who was on
:07:16. > :07:23.the scene very early, as the raid and folded.
:07:24. > :07:29.We gather they had phone taps, surveillance and witnesses, who had
:07:30. > :07:34.pointed to the fact that there was a terrorist cell in the flat, perhaps
:07:35. > :07:40.including the mastermind of Friday's attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud. And now
:07:41. > :07:45.this assessment from our security correspondent.
:07:46. > :07:50.Five days on, the investigation continues, French and Belgian
:07:51. > :07:53.authorities have gathered enough DNA, think of Prince and other clues
:07:54. > :07:59.to identify most of the attackers. -- fingerprints. The Paris attackers
:08:00. > :08:08.attacked in three groups, at the Stade de France, two attackers have
:08:09. > :08:14.been identified, one man pretending to be a Syrian refugee. And a
:08:15. > :08:17.20-year-old French national, living in Belgium, he had spent some time
:08:18. > :08:21.reportedly fighting for Islamic State in Syria. Only months ago he
:08:22. > :08:26.was still at school and his teacher remembers his extreme views.
:08:27. > :08:30.TRANSLATION: Are to be Charlie Hebdo attacks there was a noisy class and
:08:31. > :08:35.he was speaking all the time and defending the attack -- afterbirth.
:08:36. > :08:38.He said it was the right thing to do when religion was insulted and I was
:08:39. > :08:42.very surprised and reported this to the headteacher. At the Bataclan
:08:43. > :08:47.Theatre where the worst of the killing took place, Omar Ismail
:08:48. > :08:51.Mostefai died at the scene, he was a 29-year-old French national with a
:08:52. > :08:54.conviction for petty crime. He lived outside Paris and attended the local
:08:55. > :09:00.mosque. He is all so thought to have travelled to Syria recently. And
:09:01. > :09:04.then there is a 28-year-old Frenchman from a Paris suburb,
:09:05. > :09:07.already known to French intelligence, he blew himself up
:09:08. > :09:11.inside the theatre. And this is where he lived, neighbours said
:09:12. > :09:15.everyone here knew him and it was hard to believe he had become a
:09:16. > :09:23.suicide bomber. In the restaurant and bar attacks, police have
:09:24. > :09:29.identified: He was a Frenchman living in Belgium, where oddly owned
:09:30. > :09:36.a bar. A neighbour remembers a reasoning cancer. TRANSLATION: He
:09:37. > :09:39.came to us in this neighbourhood to hide Kalashnikovs, but as we knew he
:09:40. > :09:51.was crazy we said to each other, it is not true. He said, it's serious.
:09:52. > :09:57.-- remember a reasoning cancer. -- recent encounter. Abdelhamid
:09:58. > :10:02.Abaaoud, seen here in a recent Islamic State propaganda video, his
:10:03. > :10:04.sister is believed to have sent -- blow herself up in Paris this
:10:05. > :10:14.morning. The dramatic events every focus
:10:15. > :10:19.attention on so-called Islamic State and the threat that it poses. --
:10:20. > :10:23.have refocused attention. The head of intelligence in Iraqi
:10:24. > :10:26.Kurdistan has told the BBC that IS could be defeated within months if
:10:27. > :10:28.world powers became fully engaged. Our Middle East Correspondent Jim
:10:29. > :10:48.Muir reports. This was the moment when weeks of IS
:10:49. > :10:53.planning reach their climax - was this a planned provocation to lure
:10:54. > :10:57.the West into confrontation in the Middle East? The militants have
:10:58. > :11:03.suffered setbacks on the ground, just last Friday Kurdish forces in
:11:04. > :11:07.northern Iraq drove them out of a strategic town Bay had held for 15
:11:08. > :11:11.months, but even the triumphant Kurds have no illusion that this was
:11:12. > :11:18.a death blow. It is very difficult to say that Isis has weakened, they
:11:19. > :11:22.might be losing some ground here and there, but to them, to terrorise,
:11:23. > :11:26.they are using different methods and they might try to do more of this if
:11:27. > :11:33.they are not stopped and if they are not kept under pressure. Last night
:11:34. > :11:43.French jets carried out their third series of bombing raids since Sunday
:11:44. > :11:47.and Isis's declared capital of Raqqa, and France declared more than
:11:48. > :11:50.30 militants have been killed, but military experts have said air
:11:51. > :12:00.strikes alone cannot win the war. Isis can be defeated, no doubt, and
:12:01. > :12:05.we can learn to contain them. What we can't do is allow them to go on
:12:06. > :12:10.dictating the pace, seizing the initiative. Kurdish leaders make it
:12:11. > :12:15.clear they will not fight outside the areas they regard as their own,
:12:16. > :12:19.the Western television does not yet have capable, cohesive allies on the
:12:20. > :12:25.ground in the rest of Iraq and Syria -- the Western powers. To destroy
:12:26. > :12:28.IS, they would have to go in themselves, and that would not be
:12:29. > :12:35.the end of the stories. Muslim community leaders need to be at the
:12:36. > :12:40.forefront of this war in particular, enlightened Muslim teachers need to
:12:41. > :12:45.do more to reach out to communities and immunise them from the spread of
:12:46. > :12:50.Isil ideology. Multiple dilemmas facing the West, to defeat IIS
:12:51. > :12:57.militarily there might be no choice but to go in on the ground -- Isis
:12:58. > :13:08.militarily. Strategies that could be fraught with risks.
:13:09. > :13:13.The street has now been reopened, and we are hearing from the French
:13:14. > :13:19.authorities in the last few minutes that they have managed to identify
:13:20. > :13:24.all of the 129 people who were killed in Friday night's terror
:13:25. > :13:38.attacks in Paris. And now back to London. The French president has
:13:39. > :13:42.also said again that" we are at war", and he reminded people that
:13:43. > :13:46.the jihadis of Isil have an army, financial resources, oil and
:13:47. > :13:51.territory and they have accomplices in Europe. We are keeping across
:13:52. > :13:57.this story in Paris, and we heard just now from my colleague at the
:13:58. > :14:05.scene in Saint Denis. Tim Wilcox is in central Paris and he has the
:14:06. > :14:09.latest developers. -- developments. I'm 12 kilometres away to the south
:14:10. > :14:18.of Saint Denis. We can bring you the latest information. Very dramatic
:14:19. > :14:23.events before dawn in Saint Denis, a police raid taking place in that
:14:24. > :14:29.suburb, densely populated area, north of where I am now. The
:14:30. > :14:34.operation targeting the suspected mastermind of Friday night's deadly
:14:35. > :14:43.attacks, 27-year-old Abdelhamid Abaaoud. The operation began at 425
:14:44. > :14:49.in the morning local time. Gunfire and explosions were heard in that
:14:50. > :14:55.area, very close to the basilica, in a shopping district of Saint Denis.
:14:56. > :15:00.French police say two suspects are dead, one of them a woman,
:15:01. > :15:07.detonating a suicide vest as she reportedly charged police officers
:15:08. > :15:14.outside her apartment. The other, a male, either shot dead by a sniper
:15:15. > :15:18.or killed with a grenade. Or gunfire within the apartment. Seven people
:15:19. > :15:24.have been arrested and several police officers have been injured in
:15:25. > :15:31.the operation. We know that seven people have been arrested, but it is
:15:32. > :15:39.not yet clear who they are. We can bring you some video which was taken
:15:40. > :15:45.by a TV crew just underneath the roof of the white tent that you
:15:46. > :15:56.should be able to see. You can see a naked man in handcuffs being led
:15:57. > :16:02.away by armed police. We can bring you a still photograph of a man who
:16:03. > :16:08.appears to be naked from the waist down, a bloody bandage on his hip.
:16:09. > :16:14.He had been treated by security officials who stormed the flat, his
:16:15. > :16:19.hands are being held behind his back by police officers, and the reason
:16:20. > :16:25.for the man not wearing clothes is unclear, but one would issue him it
:16:26. > :16:30.might be they were taken by surprise or they have been stripped for fear
:16:31. > :16:37.they were wearing explosive devices -- one would assume it might be. We
:16:38. > :16:43.have an image of another man being arrested and he is fully clothed and
:16:44. > :16:52.appears to be uninjured. He's handcuffed. His identity is unknown.
:16:53. > :16:59.Those dramatic events taking place before dawn in the suburb of Saint
:17:00. > :17:03.Denis. A little later on we heard from the Ministry of the Interior
:17:04. > :17:08.and indeed the Paris prosecutor, but after that President Hollande
:17:09. > :17:15.addressed the National Assembly of Mayors including the mayor of Paris
:17:16. > :17:21.and his message was defiant and clear, this is what he had to say.
:17:22. > :17:33.TRANSLATION: These actions confirm to us once again that we are at
:17:34. > :17:38.war, a war against terrorism which itself has decided to launch war
:17:39. > :17:50.against us. The jihadists organisation of Isil, it has an
:17:51. > :17:58.army, financial sources, oil, it occupies a territory, it has
:17:59. > :18:09.accomplices in Europe and in our own country. In a radical Islamists,
:18:10. > :18:13.Isil has committed massacres there and it would like to commit murders
:18:14. > :18:19.here and it has done so. During the night of the 13th of November. At
:18:20. > :18:31.least 129 people were killed, lost their lives. Our thoughts are with
:18:32. > :18:35.them, with the men and women who work outwardly assassinated and
:18:36. > :18:37.injured, we are thinking about their families who have been thrown into
:18:38. > :18:49.paying -- who were cow these attacks have hit Paris and
:18:50. > :18:53.Saint Denis, but these attacks concern all the French, where ever
:18:54. > :19:00.they live in French territory, because it is the entire country
:19:01. > :19:05.that has been attacked. For the simple reason, what it represents,
:19:06. > :19:10.the value it holds, the combat it is pursuing to eradicate terrorism and
:19:11. > :19:23.for the simple reason for what we are. The terrorists aim was to
:19:24. > :19:26.target the idea of France itself. What has happened throughout
:19:27. > :19:33.generations, the liberty that France has, universal rights that it
:19:34. > :19:42.defends, this is what has been attacked. During the night of the
:19:43. > :19:45.13th of November. Because these barbaric people in their blind
:19:46. > :19:59.violence have targeted the diversity of the French people irrespective of
:20:00. > :20:03.the origin, colour, religion, it is the youth of France which was the
:20:04. > :20:10.target, because that represents the diversity and generosity and the
:20:11. > :20:11.liberty, simply speaking, life. President Hollande, addressing the
:20:12. > :20:18.National Assembly of Mayors. That came after a statement from the
:20:19. > :20:25.French prosecutor, who was addressing supporters width
:20:26. > :20:31.reporters in -- he was addressing reporters in Saint Denis and he said
:20:32. > :20:35.what had gone on in the raid. TRANSLATION: I would like to make
:20:36. > :20:41.some remarks, I will give you more details at a press conference early
:20:42. > :20:48.this afternoon, and nobody has been able to enter the apartment until
:20:49. > :20:54.scientific tests have been carried out. This operation was with within
:20:55. > :21:00.the terrorist inquiry given on Friday, and during this inquiry an
:21:01. > :21:05.investigation, a great deal of work has been done, which has allowed us
:21:06. > :21:14.to obtain through telephone surveillance and eyewitnesses,
:21:15. > :21:16.elements that gave us belief that the so-called Abdelhamid Abaaoud was
:21:17. > :21:25.actually in this apartment in Saint Denis. The operation was carried out
:21:26. > :21:34.last night that has resulted in the shooting described by the Minister.
:21:35. > :21:41.First of all, we have arrested three people inside the building, and also
:21:42. > :21:48.a young woman blew herself up. By blowing up her belt. And also the
:21:49. > :21:57.death of another terrorist whose body was found during the operation.
:21:58. > :22:00.He was hit by a grenade and bullets. Two other people have been arrested
:22:01. > :22:07.while they were trying to hide in the trouble. It is the 1 who
:22:08. > :22:15.provided the lodging to the terrorist. It is very impossible at
:22:16. > :22:20.the moment to give you the identity of the culprits. We have to wait
:22:21. > :22:25.until we have determined who is who, and following scientific and
:22:26. > :22:29.police enquiry, how they happened to be in that apartment, and also the
:22:30. > :22:38.Department of investigation. That is the French prosecutor, we
:22:39. > :22:41.can now have a look at the significance of the location of
:22:42. > :22:47.these early morning raids in Paris. It is a couple of kilometres away
:22:48. > :22:51.from the Stade de France, the area which was targeted by the militants
:22:52. > :22:56.on Friday night. Who killed dozens of people in bars and restaurants,
:22:57. > :23:01.further away in the centre of Paris. The area of Saint Denis has a high
:23:02. > :23:11.proportion of people from ethnic minorities. Heavily armed police
:23:12. > :23:18.were deployed here, to one of the main shopping districts in Saint
:23:19. > :23:26.Denis, the actual apartment was on a side street, nearby. Throughout the
:23:27. > :23:32.morning we have been talking to people who witnessed those attacks,
:23:33. > :23:40.some of them living very close by, including this man. There is some
:23:41. > :23:56.stuff going on outside, if you wait, I can show you outside a little bit.
:23:57. > :24:09.SIRENS. I don't know exactly what is going on. We had some gunshots from
:24:10. > :24:14.the other streets. The operation is still going on, actually. We have no
:24:15. > :24:20.idea what is going on, people have been told to stay at home, no one
:24:21. > :24:27.can lead, and there is no way to get out of the neighbour -- no one can
:24:28. > :24:30.leave. That is the situation right now.
:24:31. > :24:38.We have more sirens here at Place de la Republique, plenty of activity,
:24:39. > :24:41.several vans driving past. Another eyewitness to the events at 425
:24:42. > :25:08.local time now. I can see over 20, 30 vehicles from
:25:09. > :25:20.the Army and the police, as well as what feels like a hundred police or
:25:21. > :25:25.army officers, and what I can see, when it was calming down a little
:25:26. > :25:29.bit, I was looking out and I could see some people in black, running
:25:30. > :25:34.round and I suspect they were police and army, rather than the suspects.
:25:35. > :25:38.To be honest my heart is still pounding and I cannot leave the
:25:39. > :25:43.building. If someone does a suicide bombing, I will be dead, basically.
:25:44. > :25:47.I feel as though my life is at risk, but there is nothing I can do,
:25:48. > :25:53.so I may as well stay here and talk with many news agencies.
:25:54. > :25:59.Truly terrifying moments again for the people of Paris, and one can
:26:00. > :26:03.only imagine the families living there, listening to those sounds
:26:04. > :26:14.before dawn when the operation was carried out. Short while ago I spoke
:26:15. > :26:17.to our correspondent Hugh Schofield who has been following all of the
:26:18. > :26:22.developments and he gave us the very latest about what was being said in
:26:23. > :26:29.more detail about the operation at 425 this morning. The police went to
:26:30. > :26:36.this place at about 420 this morning, they had been following a
:26:37. > :26:40.woman who might be a relation, a cousin of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, they
:26:41. > :26:44.had been following her and she led them to this apartment, and they
:26:45. > :26:47.knew there might be terrorist associates of those who carried out
:26:48. > :26:52.the Friday attacks, and possibly Abdelhamid Abaaoud himself. We need
:26:53. > :26:56.to be quite clear, they were hoping to get him there, but we don't think
:26:57. > :27:02.they knew he was there. There is a mystery over whether he was actually
:27:03. > :27:07.at this apartment. In any case, they move after an exchange of fire,
:27:08. > :27:17.which was pretty voracious, they arrested three people who are
:27:18. > :27:21.brought out -- ferocious. A police dog goes in, and it is shot, and
:27:22. > :27:26.then there is a confrontation at six o'clock, as the police get closer,
:27:27. > :27:29.and the woman charges at them and blows herself up, something that has
:27:30. > :27:34.never happened to French police before, this is a marquee point for
:27:35. > :27:42.them, to be charged at by anyone, but a woman suicide bomber. She
:27:43. > :27:46.kills only herself. The siege continues, there is another round of
:27:47. > :27:52.explosions at around 730, and then it is over, apart from the fact they
:27:53. > :27:59.later discover two other people hiding in the rubble. Five people
:28:00. > :28:02.arrested in the building, two arrested outside of the building,
:28:03. > :28:07.including the owner of the apartment and his wife, and the dead are this
:28:08. > :28:14.woman who blew herself up and a body discovered to have been hit by maybe
:28:15. > :28:21.sniper bullets or other projectiles. The big question, who are those
:28:22. > :28:33.arrested and who are the dead? Is Abdelhamid Abaaoud one of the dead?
:28:34. > :28:39.Reports also that intelligence agencies thought another attack was
:28:40. > :28:44.being planned? There's no way of knowing that is true, has been
:28:45. > :28:50.confirmed. It has been doing the rumour mill, though. There has been
:28:51. > :28:55.nothing from reliable security sources quoted by reliable news
:28:56. > :29:01.agencies to suggest that. It is something which is going round. The
:29:02. > :29:07.least we can say, it is shocking and scary, and just four days after the
:29:08. > :29:13.Friday attacks, there was a woman with a suicide belt ready to act and
:29:14. > :29:19.other people in this apartment with a stockpile of weapons, and whether
:29:20. > :29:23.or not they were preparing to carry out another attack immediately, I
:29:24. > :29:27.don't know. Probably they were keeping a low profile given the
:29:28. > :29:30.amount of awareness there is among the public, anything suspicious
:29:31. > :29:36.would be immediately reported, and so they be keeping a low profile,
:29:37. > :29:39.but we can assume they were intending to plan other things and
:29:40. > :29:50.to go out with a bang, when the police moved in. That is our Paris
:29:51. > :29:55.correspondent. Telling us what we now know about that to Matic
:29:56. > :30:01.early-morning raid, 12 kilometres from where I'm standing, in the
:30:02. > :30:06.suburb of pace two -- about that dramatic early-morning raid. Two
:30:07. > :30:12.people killed, one woman blowing herself up with a suicide vest, the
:30:13. > :30:13.other killed by a sniper, we think. You're watching