Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Massive Police Raid in Paris Suburb. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired November 18, 2015 - 05:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: They think he might have been inside that apartment building.

[05:00:02] HALA GORANI, CNN ANCHOR: Let's bring you a brief timeline here so you can put it into context. The raid on the apartment in Saint-Denis, which by the way is just a few miles north of where we are, began at 11:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time. That was about 4:00 a.m. here.

Just for all of you, our viewers, to get a sense, this is what it sounded like when it happened.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

BERMAN: All right. This is what we know. After all of this, after all of this intense activity, which by the way it is still an ongoing operation. Three suspected terrorists have been killed. One of them was a woman who blew herself up early on in this operation.

The Paris prosecutors office says right now five other people have been arrested, three taken into custody from inside the apartment, two others nearby.

GORANI: And the sources also telling us at CNN that a civilian bystander was killed and five police officers were injured and it appears as though those who have been injured have been injured very badly, these are lighter wounds, thankfully.

But let's put this in context. This is a few miles from where we in the center of Paris, and importantly, just about 800 yards away from the soccer stadium that was the site of one of the attacks on Friday night. This is a diverse sort of average to lower income neighborhood in the north of Paris. It's usually bustling. Shops are opened. Buses are rung.

There you have a birds-eye view of the area we are talking about.

BERMAN: So close -- so close to the Stade de France, which is a soccer stadium where a suicide attack took place on Friday.

GORANI: It's greater Paris. People, though, this morning are waking up to this nightmare on their streets, told to say home, keep your kids home. Don't send them to school, all public transport has been suspended. BERMAN: Metro closed. Schools closed as well.

And again, we were talking to Regis Le Sommier, a French reporter, who police sources said to him they got there. They got there at this raid, just from time, just in time. The police did not make clear exactly what this meant.

Was this just before another attack was about to take place?

GORANI: These are live images coming to us from Saint-Denis. Police have set up some sort of tent, possibly forensic work, possibly gathering information, possibly talking to witnesses there, but shielding as well some of the area from the view and the camera lenses of journalists.

BERMAN: And since one of the suspected terrorists, a woman did blow herself up. There is concern the apartment they were in could be booby trapped. So, they are being careful with the possibility of more explosives there.

Our Atika Shubert has been in Saint-Denis for hours now, witnessing this dramatic operation from nearly the beginning.

Atika, give us a sense of what's going on?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Right now it does appear more relaxed. Having said that, we just saw, for example, several soldiers walking past here. It's completely surreal for many of the residents here.

The tram is close, no public transportation. And then to see soldiers walking down, patrolling down your street in the middle of Paris.

Now, in terms of what happened, 4:30 in the morning is when the operation appears to have started. Residents woke up to the sound of automatic gunfire and an explosion. Two sustained volleys of automatic gunfire. We arrived shortly after that.

We saw a number of tactical units here, including SWAT units and masked investigative units here in the crowd looking for people. And then at that same time, we heard explosions, roughly about six or seven explosions. They sounded quite regular, possibly controlled detonations, although, we are waiting for police to confirm that.

Since then, it has winded down. There are still soldiers inside for security reasons, armed police. Recently, I also saw firefighters as well. Again, that speaks to, John, that concern that there might be explosives or booby traps in the area.

BERMAN: All right. Atika Shubert in Saint-Denis.

At the other end of that neighborhood where Atika is standing right now, we have our Frederik Pleitgen who is also watching what's going on.

Fred, what can you tell us? FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via

telephone): Hi, John.

Yes, that's a new vantage point. It's pretty far down the street. (INAUDIBLE) several things have happened over the past couple of minutes.

We saw an injured police officer evacuated from the scene, he had a bit of a limp. I'm not sure what that came from. He was attended to by many medical personnel who were on the scene there. Also way down the street on the vicinity of where that apartment appears to be, we did see what appeared to be forensic workers or almost medical workers escort some civilians out of the area.

So, I'm wondering if maybe they are still conducting the evacuations, whether or not that might indication police operation might be imminent (INAUDIBLE) one of those apartments, because the other thing that we are seeing as well is that a lot of police vehicles moved down the street towards that apartment I'd say about 25, 30 minutes ago, there is a quite a big build up at this point.

[05:05:22] Our police force is right in the vicinity of that apartment. Some of them appear to be and again, I'm a little further away some of them seriously carrying shields. What could be shields, they're sort of in the front. Right now, they are gathering and that apartment. But again, no move has been made yet, John.

GORANI: All right, Fred, who's there in Saint-Denis, alongside our Atika Shubert. We have a full team covering these developments in Paris. We will get back to you both shortly.

Our chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour is with us with more on what we have been witnessing overnight.

And we were speaking with Regis Le Sommier, deputy editor in chief of "Paris Match", who said one of his top police sources said this could have been a new team preparing a new attack. This is one of the possibilities that, of course, investigators are going to be looking at.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. It was really dramatic when we went through the dark raid that was going on in Saint-Denis, helicopters over this building. They have obviously founded. We're trying to figure out who was inside, all those gunshots, all those explosions.

I guess the most dramatic notion was twofold. One, were they about to close in on Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who is the mastermind of this operation?

Just to recap, he's a 27-year-old Belgian. He's been a long time in Syria, known to be in the ranks of ISIS. Now apparently has come back and led this operation. So he's wanted perhaps more than any other figure.

Although we know also that Salah Abdeslam who we have been talking about for days is still on the run and maybe one other as well. That coupled with, well, we'll see whether his fate is resolved any time soon, but coupled with what happens next and what might have been foiled from the very beginning, all the French authorities, President Hollande, the prime minister, the interior minister, defense minster, everybody was warning there could be rolling attacks.

So, most people don't think it would be -- if it was in that regard, not that it was a separate new cell, but part of this cell, and part of rolling attacks. And that will again have to figure out once we get more knowledge.

But, certainly, today, French President Francois Hollande is at the Elysee, as he always is bright and early in this emergency situation, meeting with Manuel Valls, his prime minister and the interior minister who is on the scene in charge of the overall security and investigations.

BERMAN: CIA Director John Brennan just yesterday said he had more concerns there were more attacks in the pipeline. Whether this is the pipeline they were talking about we are not sure. What we do know is a significant operation over the last several hours with three suspected terrorists.

(CROSSTALK)

AMANPOUR: And it's important to see you, on Saturday, Sunday, we were talking about seven to eight attackers. Most of whom were dead. One of whom was on the run.

In the intervening days, it has grown. I mean, there may be a cell, yesterday, they were saying 20. Today we may hear that the number is bigger.

But the number of people suspected of being involved in this big cell, these several cells, to be a part of this operation, these terrorist attacks, seems to be growing, according to French police.

GORANI: Because if they were planning, indeed, another set of attacks or another attack, you know, conducting an operation such as the one we saw on Friday, which was terrible and deadly and unprecedented on French soil and modern times. And then having all the journalists gather to cover that and potentially carry out another set of attacks, to get maximum publicity is one of the possibilities experts are looking at right now.

BERMAN: And again, this raid, they went in force. We were told they got there just in time. Just in time.

That was the early hours of the morning right now. Is it possible that this group of as many as eight suspected terrorists, three dead, five now in custody, were they waiting for dawn when the streets were busy once again, if people were out here again to stage some kind of morning attack here in this city to city? So, very much on edge still this morning from what happened on Friday.

AMANPOUR: And quite extraordinary that they would have been sort of in plain sight as the saying goes. This is, obviously, the area where the first attacks took place on Friday, right near the stadium, the Stade de France.

So it's very close to the scene of the crime. And, of course, lots of authorities, lots of security and intelligence has been diverted toward Belgian because of the car that moved on to Belgian. So, you know, were they trying again to sort of divide and conquer in terms of the security services or, or -- and this is a question police and others are asking, is it because of the state of emergency, the reinforced ring of steel, that they actually couldn't get away and will holed up where they could get holed up.

[05:10:01] GORANI: But it would be remarkable I have to say. If Abdelhamid Abaaoud who were led to believe up until just a few hours ago, were still inside Syria was actually hiding in plain sight. Not just hiding in plain sight, directing an operation the scale of which France has not seen in living memory on Friday.

And it would be -- questions would really have to be asked about intelligence failures here.

BERMAN: We do know they have been hard at work since Friday. We have been told this raid this second apprehension of these people planning something else. They launched this based on intelligence gathering, investigating the first attacks.

We know they recovered a whole bunch of cell phones. They were looking at decoding that information right there. So it is possible intelligence gleaned from the initial investigation led to this round of this raid this morning.

AMANPOUR: Abaaoud was thought to have come back. I mean, he is the most high profile, most violent, most known Belgian jihadi who has gone to Syria and then you know to come back and linked to a series of failed attacks in the years alone. He had connections according to police with the guy on the train who tried to massacre people with an AK-47 this summer.

BERMAN: We saw a Department of Homeland Security memo yesterday. Our Evan Perez uncovered this memo, where U.S. authorities had their eye on Abdelhamid Abaaoud for some time because of the Paris train attacks, because of the attacks in Verviers last year. That's why this morning when we woke up and heard these raids targeted Abaaoud, perhaps he may have been in this apartment complex in Saint-Denis, it would be remarkable if he was able to get back here to Paris to help mastermind these attacks from here.

AMANPOUR: I asked Secretary Kerry yesterday, because many, you know, people have thought that France, the U.S., others were trying to target him in Syria.

BERMAN: In Syria.

AMANPOUR: Yes. And I asked him whether he could confirm. That he would not deny or confirm that. GORANI: All right. Let's recap a little bit what we know if you are

just joining us. Some very dramatic developments overnight. We are hearing from our BFM television affiliate, seven arrests in these terror raids in Saint-Denis north of Paris, very close to the soccer stadium where two bombers blew themselves up.

We're also hearing that one female suicide bomber killed herself in an apartment on the street here, very close to this location that we're showing you live right now, in Saint-Denis, at 11:12 a.m. look. Two others suspected terrorists as well killed.

So, was this another group of terrorists planning a whole new set of attacks? Or was the group linked to the Friday attackers in some sort of support role? It's starting to emerge based on sources speaking to top journalists here that it probably is the former, that perhaps these individuals were on the verge of carrying out a new attack.

BERMAN: Three suspected terrorists dead. Now BFM, a CNN affiliate here, saying seven arrests in the terrorists raid, the numbers keep changing. We've been told before that three taken into custody from inside the building. Now, that number a little murky. As many as seven people arrested this morning. Three suspected terrorists dead.

GORANI: All right, joining us now to discuss the vastly heightened security here in the Paris area is the city's deputy mayor in charge of security Colombe Brossel.

Thanks, for being with us, Colombe Brossel.

What, you woke up this morning I'm sure like most of us. You got briefed possibly on the information. What is the latest you can tell us?

COLOMBE BROSSEL, DEPUTY MAYOR OF PARIS IN CHARGE OF SECURITY: Well, honestly, I don't have more information than what I see on TV. The assault is enduring right now. We are waiting.

GORANI: So, it's still ongoing, yes?

BROSSEL: Yes. Absolutely.

GORANI: OK.

BROSSEL: Hoping that no one will be hurt in in this assault.

BERMAN: We have a television reporter telling us they got there just in time. Are there concerns that there was another attack planned?

BROSSEL: Well, there are concerns since Friday. So that's why the government just put so many police, soldiers to work on this, because we are all afraid since Friday that things to come. So that's why this operation is on.

GORANI: We are hearing potentially that this was a group that was planning separate attacks. The big worry in France now is that this may be sort of in waves. That this was planned from the beginning. One would happen Friday. One would happen a few days later.

And now what? What is your biggest worry as an official in the Paris city hall?

[05:15:00] BROSSEL: Now what is that thousands of soldiers are arriving and still arriving on the Thursday morning in the streets in Paris and the area. In the streets in front of the schools, in front of the shops, in the streets to picture the Parisian people because this is what do matter --

GORANI: How many troops?

BROSSEL: So it's like 3,000 that are coming in Paris, in the area.

GORANI: Military troops?

BROSSEL: Yes, absolutely.

GORANI: Three thousand military troops in Paris?

BROSSEL: And the area.

GORANI: And the outlying area.

BROSSEL: In the metro, the subway, because we know that the subway is potentially a place where they could act.

BERMAN: Given the operation going on in Saint-Denis right now, where three suspected terrorists are killed and as many as seven arrests are -- any special new precautions being taken on the streets of Paris today?

BROSSEL: Well, we have to live. You have to go to work. You have to go to school. And you have to live and you have to go to the restroom, too. You have to -- well, to be a Parisian.

But you have to be safe, so you have to watch and when there is a problem, you have to call the police, because they are very reactive. So, we have to keep on living in Paris. But we have to be secure.

GORANI: Can I ask you, 3,000 extra military, what about police, what about security forces? What is Paris adding to its security operations?

BROSSEL: Well, on the police troops are in Paris and in the area right now. So, they are in the streets and working on the --

GORANI: Investigation.

BROSSEL: Investigation. Thank you.

Because there are thousands of police people working on this investigation. So, of course, it is very important matter because if we find this one, because police is working Friday night on the investigation.

GORANI: What do you tell? So many people watch us all over the world who may be, you know, worried, they're now thinking Paris is not safe.

BROSSEL: No, Paris is alive. Parisian people are strong.

You know, we keep admitting we are close to the terrorist attacks. They say we want to keep on. We want to be strong. We want to stand up.

They won't harm us. They won't hurt us. Because we are stronger. So we have to be close. We have to be stronger. So, we have to live.

And, please, come to Paris. Paris is the most beautiful in the world. Come to Paris because we need you to come to Paris. We need to see tourists. Everything is open Paris on Monday or yesterday, please.

GORANI: It's getting back to normal, you can absolutely sense it.

Colombe Brossel, thank very much from the mayor's office.

BERMAN: You have been strong. We know you will continue to be.

BROSSEL: Thanks a lot.

BERMAN: Thank you for being with us.

Obviously, the news this morning is ongoing operations. Five-hour operation or a raid in a neighborhood north of Saint-Denis, three suspected terrorists killed, as many as seven under arrest, that's according to our affiliate BFM.

A woman believed to have plane herself up early on in the operation. The target believed to be the Belgian-borne mastermind of the Friday attacks here, Abdelhamid Abaaoud.

We do not know if he was there. We do know that was one of the reasons they went in.

Now, what's going on here in Paris, just one aspect -- just one aspect of this in European wide now dragnet. The search for the people responsible for these attacks. One of the people who has been on the run, believed to be on the run is Salah Abdeslam, who is believed to have been at that point the eighth attacker on Friday. He was last seen headed towards the Belgian border.

Our Ivan Watson is in Belgium right now for the latest on that search and also the latest just from what has now become a hub of feared terrorist activity -- Ivan.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. But, John, let me just interrupt by pointing out the French national police, they put out another detail they felt was important to add about that raid in Paris, that among the casualties, a police dog, a 7-year-old police dog by the name of Diesel that was killed, again, according to the French national police, a tweet that they put up on their official and verified account, killed by the terrorists they say in that raid. Now, switching back to the manhunt, Salah Abdeslam, Belgian born, 26

years old, his older brother, one of the suicide bombers in the initial attacks on Friday that killed so many innocent people. The vehicle that he was seen driving from Paris in the direction of Belgium after the attacks in Paris ended up being found here by Belgian authorities.

His brother, whose family lives in an apartment about 100 feet from where I'm standing, his brother was questioned by Belgian authorities after the Paris attacks.

[05:20:07] This is a brother Mohamed, a third brother in the family, has since been released and had spoken to CNN, urging his fugitive brother Salah to turn himself in. He's also issued a warning that he fears that his brother is capable of hurting people while being on the run.

And the Belgian authorities who are closely watching the events in Saint-Denis waiting to find out who has been arrested and killed in that apartment. They say it would have direct implication on their investigation, they also are not taking any chances. They say as long as Salah Abdeslam is at large, that he could pose a very serious threat -- John and Hala.

GORANI: All right. Ivan, stand by.

With we are learning forensic teams have moved into this apartment by the way where we understand that that female suicide bomber killed herself. Two others as well killed among the six suspected terrorists. Three under arrest. A couple more under arrest as well on the street outside the --

BERMAN: Seven told now under arrest. Seven in custody. Three dead. That's a lot of people, you know, targeted now in this race this morning.

I want to go to Atika Shubert, who's on Saint-Denis, this neighborhood to the north of the city where this has been taking place for several hours.

Atika, what are you seeing?

SHUBERT: That's right. We're seeing police operations continuing. Firefighters are in the area. Forensics police are now going into the building as well. And we understand the building has also, is also being evacuated for safety reasons.

It's very interesting that we have just learned an extra two people have been arrested. It just goes to show, this is still very much an ongoing operation. That brings us to seven arrested. Another two believed to have organized. They were the landlord for the apartment and then now another two in the vicinity.

We are still trying to understand where those other two were arrested. Now, we know also of course in that apartment three of the suspects were killed. Two were killed in a gunfight and a woman who detonated an explosives vest also died when that raid was ongoing.

So, again, this goes to show the operation is ongoing. There may still be more arrests yet, John.

GORANI: Atika, are they evacuating that building because of fears of booby traps inside that apartment?

SHUBERT: Police haven't told us why they are doing that. But I think there is a very good indication that this is a primary concern for police, when you consider that already, they had one of the suspects detonate an explosives vest. We heard a series of explosions earlier, which sounded like controlled detonations. But they still want to make sure the entire building is safe and that may be one reason why they had residents evacuate.

You know, it's interesting, actually. We were able to speak to a man who was literally on the other side of the building. He said police literally just took him by the shoulders and dragged him out as he was on his way to work. This was a very newscast moving operation. It was terrifying for residents here, Hala.

BERMAN: It had to be. It started while most people were asleep. But as it continues, you know, it is now, into the morning hours here, where people are headed to work or thought they would be headed to work. But the public transportation in that neighborhood where you are is closed. The schools in that neighborhood where you are they are closed.

Atika, what are the people doing?

SHUBERT: Well, you know, a lot of residents have come out to see what's going on. Because they just can't believe this is happening in their neighborhood. You're absolutely right. Most of the time they would be going to work, but public transportation is shut.

There is a tram line here. There is absolutely nothing happening. Stranger earlier we saw military soldiers walking along as if on patrol. I mean, it's almost like they were in a different country to see that scene happening.

We spoke to one resident who said he was on his way to work at 5:00 a.m. when the gunshots rang out. Police told him to evacuate immediately. He said, please wait, I need to get my children, ran up stairs to get his 3-year-old daughter and the rest of his family and rushed outside.

So, it's that surreal scene has the city on edge. Particularly here in the neighborhood Saint-Denis which suffered attacks the stadium nearby was hit. And now, this -- the perpetrators of the attack appear to have been living in this very neighborhood.

GORANI: All right. Thanks, very much. She's in Saint-Denis.

Not far from where Atika is located, we find our Fred Pleitgen.

[05:25:01] Police activity is ongoing, we understand, Fred. Tell us what's going on where you are from your vantage point.

PLEITGEN: Hi, Hala. Yes, and I'm now at actually elevated vantage point. We are looking exactly down the street where all of this is happening. So, there has indeed been a lot of activity actually in the past couple of, I would say, 15 to 20 minutes.

We did see what John was talking about -- those forensic teams, what appeared to us to be what looked like forensic teams sort of walk across towards the vicinity where these apartments appear to be. It's unclear what exactly they were doing there.

But at some point, they were escorting some people what appeared to be out of the area. So, it seems to us as though maybe there are actually still evacuations going on, in that area, where all of this has taken place.

Now, the other thing we have seen, Hala, is that the police force on the scene already, but they keep moving around, and it seems to us as though they are moving closer and closer to where that building is. And some of those officers from our vantage point here appear to have what seem to be shields.

And I'm wondering whether or not they might be planning to move in, whether or not they might be planning to move, but so far you see them positioning themselves, you see them moving around, you see more and more reinforcements coming in, it doesn't look to us as though this operation is winding out. It seems to us as though this is a waiting game at this point in time. It seem as though the police are in position, definitely taking this very, very serious.

There's police that we're seeing which would seem to be sort of mini stun grenade launchers. There are ambulances as well. So, major operations that we can see from this vantage point up here overlooking that streets where those apartments appear to be where all this happened, Hala.

BERMAN: Fred, the reason they are so careful. Police sources sell CNN they believe they launched this raid just from time. They believe the suspects were about to mover on some kind of operation. They were about to launch some kind of operation.

And the fact, one of the terrorists killed, this woman was wearing a suicide vest and blew herself up indicates to them they were about to begin some kind of operation, so the timing here crucial and possibly preventing more deaths here in Paris.

GORANI: We want to remind our viewers of how dramatic it was overnight here. It began just about six hours ago. Our Atika Shubert was reporting at the time live on CNN, take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHUBERT: A number of police with masks on, with balaclavas, and arm bands that say police judiciaire, these are the investigative police. They were looking around in the crowd here, among the journalists, moving down the street. They seem to be looking for something in particular.

A number of male officers and a female officer moving down there. Again, we couldn't see any of them. They have their masks on.

But very unusual that they were moving in the crowd and moved down the street. You see one of them here still operating, showing a photo to -- oh, an explosion has just gone off.

This is still an ongoing operation. That was quite a large explosion in that direction. A second one now.

Just hold on. No gunfire, a third explosion. Fourth. That was much larger.

Police asking them to evac. There are a number of military soldiers that are now being moved into the front as well.

Again, John and Isha, this is very much an ongoing police operation at this point. We know that a number of suspects have been cornered. We don't know the exact number of who they have.

That's another explosion that's just gone off and another. There seems to be a series of them. We don't know if these are controlled detonations or not. It's gone quiet for now, but very unusual scenes here.

We saw -- just to recap a number of those explosions. We heard, we saw, a number of the police have now -- military have been deployed on the streets as well.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: To our viewers in the United States and around the world, this is a special edition of NEW DAY.

As we continue our coverage in Paris. There is a lot to tell you about, reports of explosions, of gunfire, of arrests, of deaths, of injured police. All as a part of a new ongoing and active operation in Saint-Denis, not far from the stadium attacked Friday night. One of the outside communities of Paris known for poverty, known for crime, and now potentially for terror.

I'm joined with John Berman, Hala Gorani, Christiane Amanpour.