He looks like an angel- but acted like the devil.
One of the attackers of Paris from Friday last week is reportedly hiding in Brussels from all: the police, several European intelligence services and as well ISIS leaders.
He became Europe’s most wanted.
Salah Abdeslam (26) is considered armed and very dangerous.
Therefore Belgian authorities have upped the threat level to stage 4, indicating a “serious and immediate” danger.
Belgian PM Charles Michel said he fears that like in Paris last week “several individuals with arms and explosives could launch an attack… perhaps even in several places.”
The capital of Belgium is very nervous with subway service suspended and people warned to avoid gatherings.
Lazy local politics woke up very late, after they mismanaged the ISIS threat for many years, especially in Molenbeek, a part of the capital, were many ISIS murders and the most wanted man came from. There police arrested one person Friday and searched a home, Belgium’s federal prosecutor’s office said.
He did not explode his suicide belt in the 18th arrondissement, as commanded. Instead he just left it in the street, where the police found the belt Monday 23rd. Now he fears his ISIS-bosses are after him as well as a considered defector. Here is the story of his Paris involvement:
On the evening of the attacks, in Paris, November 13, he was driving of a black Renaut Clio that dropped off three suicide bombers near the Stade de France. He drove five kilometers south, where his older brother Ibrahim blew himself up at the Comptoir Voltaire café. But there he decided against suicide.
The car was found four days later parking in 18th arrondissement on a pedestrian crossing at the Place Albert Kahn.
At about 2 a.m Saturday morning, he phoned to acquaintances in the Belgian capital and asked them to collect him.
Moroccan-born Mohammed Amri (27), and Hamza Attou (21) arrived in Paris at about 5 a.m. and picked up Abdeslam. They all met in the Barbes district, where he had abandoned his car.
All three drove to Brussels. The police even stopped them near the Belgian border at 9 am Saturday morning, but did not know at that time Abdeslam was involved in the terror act in Paris.
Later during the day the French police found another car with three AK-47 in the trunk and a connection to Abdeslam. Now the picture was clear.
He was the eighth terrorist, ISIS mentioned in a confession message Saturday morning. It referred to “eight brothers”, but only seven had been involved in the attacks. The propaganda audio and video mentioned attacks in the 18th arrondisments, where Abdeslam had parked his car, but there nothing had happened.
Both companions were arrested in Belgium, but he was gone.
What are his options now?
Giving himself up to the police might put him and his family in danger. But this is still his best option.
He can hide and wait and think or later to escape, maybe to Syria.
But this is dangerous too, as ISIS had executed several traitors in the past with no mercy.
The border control in Turkey has improved.
Like many ISIS terrorists he is a criminal- since five years.
Abdeslam was know to the Paris police as a small time criminal with some loose ties to Islamist radicalism.
He was a childhood friend of the suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud. Together, they were arrested for robbery in 2010.
On the day of the attacks in Paris, his brother Ibrahim blew himself up on boulevard Voltaire, near the Bataclan.
For sure this babyface ruined his own young life, the lives of his family and friends and many lives of innocent people in Paris. His brother asked him on Belgium TV to surrender.
No places in paradise for both either, as killing civilians, who do not directly attack you, contradicts the clear rules of jihad in the Holy Qur’an and the hadith of Prophet Mohammad.
Both are God-less killers – nothing else.
Turkish authorities said they arrested on Friday three people with suspected ties to ISIS.
Ahmet Dahmani (26) another Belgian national of Moroccan descent, who allegedly scouted target sites for the Paris attacks. The Syrian nationals Ahmet Tahir, 29, and Mohammed Verd, 23, were arrested after they traveled from Syria to meet Dahmani.