The suspected mastermind of last Friday's terror attacks in Paris that left hundreds dead and wounded sent out a mocking message about European security, saying his ability to move freely was so easy that his plot was definitely a "gift from Allah."
Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who's believed to have planned the terror strikes, said he had no difficulty at all moving between Syria, his homeland Belgium and various European points, Reuters reported. In fact, he said he was even held at one point by police but then let go – an occasion he took as a sure sign he was on an approved mission from his god.
As far back as February, Abaaoud, who now goes by Abu Omar al-Baljiki, the Belgian, said he had been in Belgium to plot attacks with a couple of his ISIS colleagues who had fought in Syria, and he then returned to Syria himself, despite the fact his face was well-known to police and distributed around the nation.
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"I suddenly saw my picture all over the media, but [thanks be to God] the kuffar [infidels] were blinded by Allah," he said, in an online magazine from ISIS, Reuters reported. "I was even stopped by an officer who contemplated me as to compare me to the picture, but he let me go, as he did not see the resemblance. This was nothing but a gift from Allah."
Security officials have confirmed Abaaoud may have been in Europe on a couple of different occasions, both in 2013 and earlier this year.
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