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Paris, France (CNN)French

authorities took the offensive


Wednesday, raiding a purported
hideout of the suspected ringleader in
last week's deadly Paris attacks in an
operation that ended with eight
detained, two dead and potentially
more bloodshed thwarted.
But what about that suspected
ringleader, Abdelhamid Abaaoud?
At one point, authorities believe he
was holed up on the third floor of an
apartment building in the northern
Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, Paris
prosecutor Francois Molins said
Wednesday. Whether he was there
when scores of heavily armed French
police launched their assault at 4:20

a.m. Wednesday (10:20 p.m. ET


Tuesday) is unknown.
Some residents in the area told CNN
they saw Abaaoud recently in the
neighborhood and at a local mosque.
Investigators zeroed in on the building
after picking up phone conversations
indicating that a relative of Abaaoud
might be there. They met fierce
resistance from the start, including an
armored door, a woman who blew
herself up and bullets flying back and
forth for about an hour. The French
officers even used powerful munitions,
which led to one floor of the building
collapsing.
That violence produced rubble that
included body parts, on which

investigators are conducting DNA


tests.
Neither Abaaoud nor suspect Salah
Abdeslam, for whom authorities have
been hunting since the attacks, were
among those detained in the
operation, Molins said.
French President Francois Hollande
held up the vicious back-and-forth as
further proof that "we are at war" with
ISIS.
"What the terrorists were targeting
was what France represents. This is
what was attacked on the night of
November 13," he said. "These
barbarians targeted France's diversity.
It was the youth of France who were
targeted simply because they
represent life."

ISIS first drew international attention


for taking over swaths of Iraq and
Syria, leaving a trail of violence and
destruction in its wake. And its efforts
to bring terror to the global stage
seem to be growing. This month
alone, ISIS has claimed responsibility
for the Paris attacks, the downing of a
Russian passenger jet in Egypt and a
pair of suicide bombings in Beirut.
France had already been part of the
U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS with
airstrikes. But the country has stepped
up its efforts since the series of
shootings and explosions in Paris last
week, which killed 129 people. Now,
Hollande has proposed extending
France's state of emergency for three
more months -- a measure that,

among other things, gives authorities


greater powers in conducting
searches, holding people and
dissolving certain groups. To go after
the Islamist extremist group, the
French President also said he would
appeal to world leaders -- including
meeting next week with U.S. President
Barack Obama and Russian President
Vladimir Putin, who have been at odds
on what to do in Syria.
"There is no more ... divide. There are
only men and women of duty," he
said. "We must destroy this army that
menaces the entire world, not just
some countries."

Paris prosecutor's spokeswoman


Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre confirmed
that 12 people were killed in the
attack.
Video images on the website of public
broadcaster France Televisions showed
two gunmen in black at a crossroads
who appeared to fire down one of the
streets. A cry of "Allahu akbar!",
Arabic for 'God is great', could be
heard among the gunshots.
The extremist Islamic State group has
threatened to attack France and
minutes before the attack Charlie
Hebdo had tweeted a satirical cartoon
of that extremist group's leader giving
New Year's wishes. The cartoon
entitled ``Still No Attacks in France''
had a caricature of an extremist

fighter saying ``Just wait we have


until the end of January to present our
New Year's wishes.''

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