Abaaoud involved in four attack plots in France this year: minister

"Abdelhamid Abaaoud obviously played a determinant role" in the attacks in Paris on the night of November 13, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told a press conference on Thursday.

The Moroccan-origin Belgian jihadist, the suspected mastermind behind the November 13 attacks, was "officially identified" by fingerprints on Thursday as one of the terrorists who died during a police raid on Wednesday, according to the Paris Prosecutor's office.

"Among the six attacks that were avoided or foiled by the intelligence service in France since spring, Abdelhamid Abaaoud seemed to have been involved in four of them," Cazeneuve said.

There was also an international arrest warrant issued for his involvement in the attempted bombing in Villejuif in April, Cazeneuve said.

However, "no information coming from European countries through which he could have transited through before arriving in France was communicated to us," Cazeneuve affirmed.

According to the French Interior Minister, it was not until November 16, after the attacks, the intelligence service of a non-EU country reported to France it had acknowledged Abaaoud's presence in Greece.

A raid was carried out early Wednesday morning in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis after sources tipped off the French police on Monday about Abaaoud's presence in France. Endit