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ByLoriHinnantandKarl Ritter The Associated Press PARIS French investiga- tors tracked down the al- leged ringleader of last week's Paris bloodshed af- ter receiving a startling tipoff: The Islamic militant wasn't in Syria but in Eu- rope, plotting yet another attack. A discarded cell- phone found near a blood- ied concert hall led them to his cousin, and then to a suburban Paris apartment where both died in a hail of bullets and explosions. As a manhunt intensi- fied Thursday for a fugitive connected to the carnage, details emerged about the intelligence operation that allowed authorities to zero in on Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the Belgian-Moroccan ex- tremist they say orches- trated the attacks in Paris and four plots thwarted ear- lier this year. The narrative provided by French officials raised questions about how a wanted militant suspected of involvement in multiple plots could slip into Eu- rope unde- tected. Investiga- tors quickly identified Abaaoud as the archi- tect of the deadly at- tacks in Paris, but they be- lieved he had coordinated the assaults against a soc- cer stadium, cafes and a rock concert from the bat- tlefields of Syria. That situation changed profoundly on Monday, when France received a tip from a non-European country that Abaaoud had slipped into Europe through Greece, Interior Minister Bernard Caze- neuve said. "It was a big surprise when the intelligence came in," said a police of- ficial, speaking on condi- tion of anonymity because the information was sensi- tive. "There were many peo- ple who didn't take it seri- ously, but effectively it was confirmed." As it turned out, not only was Abaaoud in Europe, but right in front of the noses of French investigators, a 15-minute walk from the Stade de France stadium where three suicide bomb- ers had blown themselves up during the Nov. 13 at- tacks that killed 129 peo- ple and wounded hundreds. "We have strong reason to believe that this cell was about to commit massive terror attacks in France," Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Thursday, speak- ing on public broadcaster France 2. Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said Abaaoud was traced to the apartment in Saint-Denis through phone taps and surveillance. Two police officials briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press that a cellphone dumped in a trash can outside the Bataclan concert hall — where 89 people were killed — proved crucial. It con- tained a text message sent about 20 minutes after the massacre began that read: "We're off, it's started." The phone had contact information for Abaaoud's 26-year-old cousin, Hasna Aitboulahcen, one of the po- lice officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the information hasn't been released by in- vestigators. Both she and Abaaoud were killed as heavily armed SWAT teams raided the apartment in Saint-De- nis early Wednesday, pros- ecutors said. Her final moments were marked by a brief, angry ex- change with police before she is believed to have det- onated a suicide vest — an explosion that hurled parts of her spine and other body parts onto a police car on the street below. An audio recording, con- firmed by a police official, captured the exchange. As gunshots rang out, an of- ficer was heard shouting: "Where is your boyfriend?" "He's not my boyfriend!" Aitboulahcen responded angrily. Then a loud explo- sion was heard, which po- lice officials said was the bomb in her vest detonat- ing. Prosecutors said Thurs- day that a fingerprint check had confirmed that another mangled body found inside the heavily damaged build- ing was that of Abaaoud. Eight people were arrested in connection with the raids, including two who were pulled out of the rub- ble. Authorities initially gave Abaaoud's age as 27, but on Thursday, Paris prosecutors said he was 28. "Abaaoud played a deci- sive role in these attacks," Cazeneuve said. "The inves- tigation will establish pre- cisely how this Belgo-Mo- roccan was involved." Abaaoud was also be- lieved to be behind four of six attacks thwarted this year, including on a church in the Parisian suburb of Villejuif that was foiled when the would-be attacker shot himself in the foot. French authorities are in- vestigating if Abaaoud was involved in an attempted attack on a high-speed train, where three young Americans tackled a heav- ily armed man, Cazeneuve said. In addition, he was sus- pected of links to two ji- hadis returning to Europe from Turkey, and a "wan- nabe jihadi" who upon his arrest in August told French intelligence that he had been recruited by Abaaoud to carry out a "vi- olent act" in France or an- other European country, the interior minister said. Abaaoud is believed to have gotten to know some of the attackers responsi- ble for the Paris massacre in the Moleenbeek neigh- borhood of Brussels where he grew up, including Bra- him Abdeslam who blew himself up outside a cafe in one of Paris' trendi- est neighborhoods. Ab- deslam's brother, Salah, is still being sought as a sus- pected accomplice. Authorities in Belgium on Thursday launched six raids in Molenbeek and other areas of Brussels linked to another of the sui- cide bombers, Bilal Hadfi, a French citizen who blew himself up outside the soc- cer stadium. An official in the Belgian federal prose- cutor's office said the raids targeted people in Hadfi's "entourage." How and when Abaaoud entered France before his death remained unclear. He had bragged in the Is- lamic State group's English- language magazine that he was able to slip in and out of Europe undetected. Abaaoud was wanted in Belgium, where he was sentenced in absentia this year to 20 years' imprison- ment for serving as an IS re- cruiter and kidnapping his younger brother, Younes. Belgian authorities say Abaaoud brought the boy, then 13, to Syria last year to join him in IS-controlled territory. News of Abaaoud's death seemed to ease some ten- sion in a country deeply shocked by the attacks, though officials said the af- termath was far from over. "We now know that Abaaoud, the brain behind these attacks — one of the brains, because we must be particularly cautious, and we know what the threats are — was among the dead," Prime Minister Manuel Valls told the lower house of the French Parliament. INVESTIGATION Discarded cell phone led to Paris attacks ringleader Abaaoud MICHELEULER—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Bullet holes and smashed windows are pictured on the back side of the house a er an intervention of security forces against a group of extremists in Saint-Denis, near Paris on Wednesday. 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