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Suspected coordinator of Paris, Brussels terrorist attacks identified: report

Xinhua, November 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

Suspected Belgian extremist Osama Attar, 32, is considered by Belgian investigators to be the sole coordinator between the attacks in Paris and Brussels in November 2015 and March 2016 respectively, French daily newspaper Le Monde reported Tuesday.

According to Le Monde, the extremist went under the assumed name Abu Ahmad. One of the terror suspects that Attar sent to Europe identified Attar on a photo board shown to him by investigators.

Attar, as a member of the organization "Islamic State" (IS), has been named as the person who hired two Iraqi suicide bombers setting off suicide belts near the Stade de France in Saint-Denis on Nov. 13, 2015, and is suspected of being the man to whom the terrorists submitted their plans before the blast attacks in the Belgian capital on March 22 this year, according to Le Monde.

In August, Attar was reported by the Belgian press as having been a possible "brain" behind the Brussels attacks, but his precise role was not given in detail, Le Monde said.

On Nov. 13, 2015, a series of terrorist attacks hit Paris and the area of Saint-Denis, leading to 130 deaths, while on March 22, 2016, two attacks hit Brussels Airport and Maelbeek metro station in the Belgian capital, causing 31 deaths. Endit