March 18, 2016

Salah Abdeslam, Suspect in Paris Attacks, Arrested in Belgium


Salah Abdeslam, the 26-year-old fugitive suspected of carrying out the November terrorist attacks in Paris, was shot and arrested during a counter-terrorism raid in Belgium on Friday. CNN reports Abdeslam was captured alive.

“We’ve got him,” Théo Brancken, Belgium’s secretary of state for asylum and migration posted shortly after news of Abdeslam’s arrest broke.

Earlier on Friday, police revealed they had recently discovered traces of Abdeslam’s DNA inside an apartment in Brussels. His arrest is a major development for authorities trying to piece together the international terror network that supplied and inspired the attacks. Abdeslam is the only person among the ten individuals believed to have been directly involved in the coordinated attacks to survive, the New York Times reports.

Abdeslam’s continued evasion led to a long series of anti-terror raids in the Belgian capital and surrounding areas.

The search for Abdeslam and individuals connected to the deadly November 13 attacks, which killed 130 people, sparked a massive response from law enforcement agencies throughout Europe.

Abdeslam is a French national born in Belgium.

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