Belgian authorities suspect Abaaoud of helping organize and finance a terror cell in the eastern Belgian city of Verviers that was broken up in an armed police raid on January 15, in which two of his presumed accomplices were killed.
Alyaoum24 referred to February's interview by Abaaoud with a magazine owned by the Islamic State, where he boasted about returning to Syria after an unsuccessful attempt to stage a terrorist act in Belgium.
He specifically pointed to the Belgian special services' failure to arrest him despite the fact that a Belgian policeman detained him for a while, but then released because he failed to identify his photo.
He is thought to be linked to at least one suicide bomber, Ibrahim Abdeslam, who blew himself up in the French capital on Friday night — Ibrahim Abdeslam. Notably, the two men's names were reportedly mentioned in the same criminal reports from to 2010 and 2011.
On Friday night, eight extremists wearing explosive belts attacked several venues across Paris, killing 132 people at restaurants, the Bataclan concert hall and in the vicinity of the Stade de France stadium.
