Two killed in Paris in raid on attack suspect

A woman blew herself up and a suspected jihadist was killed, as seven suspects were detained Nov. 18 in a massive police assault in Paris targeting the possible mastermind of last week's Paris attacks that killed at least 129 people and wounded more than 300.

Gunfire and explosions rocked the Saint-Denis area in the north of the city, near the Stade de France stadium, where a portion of the attacks had taken place, from before dawn as terrified residents were evacuated or told to stay in their homes, Agence France-Press reported.

Authorities arrested seven people as five police officers suffered minor injuries in the operation, a seven-hour stand-off between security forces and a group of people holed up in an apartment.

Black-clad elite police were seen hauling away a naked suspect in the streets near where three suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the football stadium at the start of attacks on Nov. 13.

After the raid, white-suited forensic experts swarmed the building as police tried to verify if Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected mastermind of the attacks, had been in the apartment.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said a probe into the attacks allowed police "to obtain telephonic surveillance and witness testimony which led us to believe that Abaaoud was likely to be in an... apartment in Saint-Denis."

However, Molins added it was too early to say if he was among those arrested or killed.

Abaaoud is an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighter who was previously thought to be in Syria after fleeing raids in his native Belgium earlier this year.

Police are hunting for two other individuals, including 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, suspected of taking part in the attacks with his...