PARIS — The man believed to have planned the Nov. 13 Paris attacks that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds more had likely planned to carry out another suicide bombing days later in the French capital’s business district, the Paris prosecutor said Tuesday.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud and an accomplice are believed to have been planning to attack La Defense on Nov. 18 or 19, prosecutor Francois Molins said.

Abaaoud was among three people killed during a police raid on an apartment in the early hours of Nov. 18. His female cousin, Hasna Ait Boulahcen, also died in the operation, while the third person, who hasn’t been identified, is believed to have detonated a suicide vest, which led to part of the apartment collapsing.

Molins said it was the unidentified third person who is believed to have been the accomplice with whom Abaaoud could have carried out an attack on La Defense.Information obtained on Nov. 19 suggested “that the two attackers – Abaaoud and the man we found by his side in the apartment – were planning an attack consisting of blowing themselves up at La Defense either on Wednesday the 18th or Thursday the 19th,” Molins said.

The Nov. 13 attacks in Paris targeted people enjoying a Friday night out at a concert hall, a restaurant terrace, a cafe and a soccer match. In the hours after the killings, Abaaoud is believed to have returned to the sites of at least some of the attacks, including the Bataclan concert hall, even while police were there.

– The Associated Press


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