Turkey warned France on Paris attack suspect: Official

Turkey warned France last year about a suspected Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant, who blew himself up in the bloody Paris attacks, and also foiled a major terror attack in Istanbul on the very same day the Paris attacks occurred, several news agencies quoted two separate Turkish officials as saying.

Turkey previously warned France on the ISIL militant identified as Omar Ismail Mostefai, one of the three perpetrators of the deadly Paris attacks, a senior Turkish official told AFP on Nov. 16, without giving his name. 

French authorities did not respond to the comment, the official said. 

Turkish police "notified their French counterparts twice in December 2014 and June 2015" about Mostefai, he said.

"We did, however, not hear back from France on the matter," added the official.

Identified by his finger, which was found among the rubble of the Bataclan concert hall, the 29-year-old Mostefai was one of three attackers, all wearing suicide vests, at the venue where 89 people were killed in the bloodiest scene of the carnage.

Born on Nov. 21, 1985, in the poor Paris suburb of Courcouronnes, Mostefai's criminal record shows eight convictions for petty crimes between 2004 and 2010, but no jail time.

The official confirmed that Mostefai entered Turkey from the northwestern province of Edirne that borders EU members Greece and Bulgaria in 2013.

"There is no record of him leaving the country," he said.

However, Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency (AA) reported there are no records of Mostefai entering and exiting Turkey in 2013, quoting official sources.

The official said French authorities had only showed interest in Mostefai after the attacks.

"It was only...