Paris terror attack suspect
Salah Abdeslam was captured alive Friday, a Belgian counter-terrorism source
said. Belgium's state broadcaster reported that the 26-year-old Abdeslam was
injured in a shootout that ended with his capture.
Belgian police conducted a raid
Friday in Brussels that ended with two suspects in custody -- one of whom may
be wanted Paris terror attack suspect Salah Abdeslam, a senior
counter-terrorism official said.
Earlier in the day, the Belgian
federal prosecutor's office revealed the 26-year-old's fingerprints and DNA
were found in a Brussels apartment raided two days earlier. One person was
killed and two people escaped that operation, according to authorities.
The man killed by a special
forces sniper was Mohamed Belkaid, an Algerian who used the name Samir Bouzid,
is believed to have directed the November 13 Paris attackers via calls from
Belgium, according to the prosecutor's office.
Belkaid is believed to have
helped Paris suspect Salah Abdeslam travel prior to the attacks and transferred
money to a female cousin of Paris ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud following the
attack, the Belgian senior counter-terrorism official told CNN in January.
Authorities believe the
26-year-old Abdeslam was using the apartment as a hideout following the
November 13 Paris attacks that left at least 130 people dead, according to the
Belgian counter-terrorism official. Salah Abdeslam is wanted after
allegedly taking part in last fall's Paris terror attacks.
Up until Friday evening, the
Belgian federal prosecutor's office has only said that "the investigation
continues day and night.
"It is currently not
possible to give any additional information to avoid causing any damage to the
investigation," the agency said.
Belgian authorities are
"not happy" that French media leaked evidence showing Abdeslam was in
the Brussels apartment raided this week, Belgium Federal Prosecutor Eric Van
Der Sijpt said Friday.
Investigators think Abdeslam
may have been the driver of a black Renault Clio that dropped off three suicide
bombers near the Stade de France, one of the attack sites. They also believe he
had worn a suicide belt found on a Paris street after the attacks.
He is believed to have called
friends to take him to Belgium after the attacks. They passed through police
checkpoints, but Abdeslam had not yet been identified as a suspect and they
were allowed to continue on their way.
Surveillance video emerged
of him and another man at a gas station near the Belgian border the day after
the attacks. He has eluded authorities ever since.
In January, authorities found
traces of explosives and Abdeslam's fingerprints in another Brussels apartment.
Some theories have suggested he
had returned to Syria following the attacks.
Abdeslam, a Belgian-born French
citizen, is the brother of another attacker, Ibrahim Abdeslam. He was a French
citizen believed to have been the suicide bomber who detonated explosives
outside a cafe on Boulevard Voltaire.