abdelhamid abaaoud. she blew herself up on wednesday during the siege. it comes at e.u. leaders met in brussels to discuss tougher measures, tightening the exterrible borders of the schengen zone. >> more people taken away under france's expanded security powers for questioning. this is said to be the mother and brother of the female suicide bomber who blew herself up wednesday as police raided an apartment in the paris suburb of saint denis. the paris prosecutor identified the woman, possibly a cousin of abdelhamid abaaoud also killed in wednesday's raid and identified as the architect of the attacks. a neighbor explained that she'd been ill treated as a child,

then removed from her parents by social services. >> she was treated badly since childhood. she slept attached to a radiator, she was electrocuted. to avoid going back from her parents, she said she wasn't a muslim anymore, she didn't think much of religion. >> a third body was discovered in the rubble of saint denis, identity as yet unknown. it was good intelligence that led police to the believe in saint denis and the death of abdelhamid abaaoud, but an apparent lack of intelligence allowed the attacks to happen in the first place, something the french prime minister has admitted poses serious questions. >> we've learned that he was in the rubble of that apartment in saint denis. the investigation has to continue to understand exactly why this man that was the subject of an international warrant issued by belgium could cross so many borders in this

way. in brussels, european union interior and justice mile an hour officers rallied to france's call for help, meeting after france this week invoked the e.u.'s mutual assistance pact for the first time ever. >> europe is standing by france in solidarity and compassion. this meeting is of great importance today. first of all, let me remind you that after charlie hebdo i proposed and finally it was done the counter terrorism center. i believe the moment to make one more step forward and put the basis for the creation of a european intelligence agency. >> paris is back to business as usual in the rain, but everyone who passes the various attack sites takes the time to stop and look perhaps light a candle or

leave a message in utter silence. >> life goes on, of course, but the awful events of a week ago, the deaths of so many have triggered consequence in france and abroad. they are only beginning to unfold. >> we are joined from outside the mosque in paris. what's the latest on the investigation? we nope that the french prime minister is speaking to the senate at this hour. he has been underscoring the commitment of the french government to protect the citizenry of this country. has he spoken at length about why these measures, these security measures are needed, why the state of emergency needs to be extended by three months. yesterday, that measure was passed in the lower house of parliament. it is expected that widely that it will be passed today. we also have heard from the

prosecutor general earlier that overnight, there were at least 172 more areas around the country that were searched and that there were dozens of arrests made, people put under house arrest. that brings the number of searches in the past week to just about 800, so it really goes to show that at a time when the president and so many other officials here are talking about how necessary it is to have the state of emergency extended and talking about what great lengths they will go to in order to protect the citizens of france, it is widely expected that there will be many more of these searches in the days, weeks and months to come. >> there have been calls from inside the muslim faith in france, and from outside the muslim faith in france for muslim french unity. is that what we are seeing today in the aftermath of friday prayers? >> today, that's what's being

seen. especially where we are, right outside the grand mosque desomee paris. many faithful were operating in the courtyard, because there was no more room inside the mosque, that despite the fact that it is terrible weather, very cold and raining all day today. it really goes to show how much of a commitment there was at the mosque to stand in solid dart with fellow french citizens and goes to show how much impetus had been put by the french muslim council to try to get the faithful out today and express the message of solidarity. yesterday, we were in many neighborhoods in and around paris that were predominantly north african population, muslim population. we really got to see how the tensions deepening between the government and muslim community

here at a time when the muslim community feels they are unfairly being put under more of a microscope than they have been in the past. >> all his life, he has struggled with acceptance. a french algerian background, he tells me he's never truly been allowed to simulate. >> it was always difficult at school. they called me the arab and it's always been hard to get a job with the faith i have. >> born and raised in france, he certainly sees himself as french, but says his fellow countrymen and women only ever identified him as algerian. growing up feeling this marginalized, it was as easy for him to fall into dealing drugs as it was to slip into despair. >> there was no other activity for us, not even a youth association. there are so many members of the north african community here who need help.

they feel alone in the city. >> in the wake of the attacks in paris, many muslims in this city feel more alone than ever before. >> in neighborhoods like this, resentment is growing almost as fast as fear is spreading. practically everyone is worried that negative attitudes towards north africans and muslims in france will only harden. at the same time, they were all too afraid to tell us that on camera. >> he tells me it's easy to see why so many muslims in france feel alienated. >> from kindergarten, you are always treated differently, so these kids if weak enough will slip into this complex thinking this is not my country, these people hate me and it's normal for me to be treated separately. there are people who get to violence, criminality and there are of course groups who prey and these weak elements to turn them into homegrown terrorists. >> he adds that so long as the french government doesn't

address the underlying causes of disenfranchisement and radicalization, the situation will not improve. it's a thought that haunts him. during his troubled adolescence. he dreamed of a day when things would finally improve, a day when he'd have a family of his own. now, though, while happy to be employed and married, he finds himself far more concerned about his two children and the future they'll face than he ever was for himself. >> time and again over the course of the past couple days, we've spoken to so many french muslims who have said that yes, they are so proud to be french, they do condemn the attacks. they just wish that more of the french society, more citizens of france would also accept them as french, as well. peter. >> muhammed, may be thanks. >> a jailed spy whose case caused tension between the u.s. and israel has been released

from prison. he is jonathan pollard, he was sentenced to life in the u.s. in 1987 for selling classified information to israel. he's out on parole after serving nearly 30 years for espionage. >> aquiet exit for a man whose case has divided public opinion. jonathan pollard leaves a u.s. prison after nearly 30 years. back in israel, the woman he married while in prison has been waiting for his return. >> for a crime that generally gets two to four years in prison in the united states, there's something obscene about that. >> pollard is an american, whose convicted of espionage for selling state secrets to israel. he has supporters and detractors in both countries. whenever there's an official visit to the u.s., israel leaders lobby for his release. the americans do their best not to discuss it. >> the israeli government has

continued to make mistakes, the same mistakes that plagued my case for the previous 13 years. they assume that they had friends in washington, when in fact, they didn't. >> pollard has also said it's the discrimination he felt as a jewish american that that motivated him. while working at a civilian analyst in the u.s. navy, he had access to classified information. he contacted israeli fiction. he sold them thousand was state secrets, a massive security breach that shocked some of the most senior people in government. >> it was indeed a serious effort by the israelien government to penetrate our intelligence community and it was successful and i don't like

it. >> live now to washington and our correspondent robert reynolds. rob, in terms of having served his time behind bars, how much damage did he cause? >> an enormous amount of damage, and in fact, it's still highly classified, so peter, we don't really know the extent of the damage. we do know that pollard transferred thousands and thousands of documents, literally documents that would fill a room to the israelis, and he took advantage of very sloppy security at the agency where he worked, part of the naval intelligence service that allowed him to literally stuff classified documents into his briefcase and just saunter out, when he would then turn them over to the israelis, who would photo copy them and pollard would return these documents later on, as he wished.

as i said, it's not known exactly what damage he did, but in a memorandum to the sentencing judge back in 1987, the then defense secretary tear casper wine burger wrote it's difficult for me to conceive of a greater harm to national security than that caused by pollard in view of the breadth, critical importance to the united states and high sense activity of the information he sold to israel. now pollard is free, more or less, although still on parole, he has to check in with a parole officer regularly. he's barred from using the internet, something that he probably did not have an opportunity to use since he's been behind bars since 1985, and he's not permitted to leave the country for five years. in israel, the prime minister benjamin netanyahu released a video statement saying that

israel welcomes pollard's release and seems to have tried to take some credit for it, saying that he repeatedly asked several presidents for pollard's release, but the fact is that under the terms of pollard's sentencing and the laws in effect at that time, once a person's sentenced to life in prison in a federal prison has served 30 years with good behavior, there's mandatory parole and that's what's happened in this case. the israelis and some u.s. lawmakers would like to see pollard allowed to leave the country and live in israel. he's expressed that wish to join the wife that he married while in prison in israel, however, the white house has said that president obama does not intend to interfere in the case, does not intend to give a waiver that would allow pollak oh to leave the country, and so it is most likely that he will remain here in the u.s. in new york, where

it's said he has a job and a place to live. >> what does this do to israeli-u.s. relations? >> it's a bit of an irritant that was of long standing, peter, and of course, now that pollard is actually out of prison, there will be less pressure being applied by israeli lawmakers and israeli officials on the united states to try to get him released, however, i think there is still some very ill feelings in the intelligence community about pollard said release. it's noteworthy that other spies of the era, such as john walker, who died in prison, such as edward pell to know, the n.s.a. spy still behind bars, aldridge

ames still behind bars, so in a way, bollard is lucky in u.s. spies of having served only 30 years and not served out his entire life sentence. the prosecutor said he would be quite pleased if pollard had spent the rest of his life in prison. >> rob, thank you. if you're just joining us here, let's recap your top story. the hostage situation in the hotel in bamako, mali special fores are at the scene, helping to bring the hostages out. the u.s. military said its special forces helping them. there were 25 of them in the city anyway. french special forces also an their way to mali. there are at least 10 gunman

involved in the attack, three have been killed. the security forces have managed to rescue at least 80 people so far. several internationalities of involved, including the french, indians, turks, nigerians and maliens. we are monitoring the story out of the nigerian capital. what do we think they might be trying to achieve? >> well, it's not clear and there is a lot of speculation. what we know, we can perhaps make judgments based on what we've learned so far is that apparently and this is according to some of the eyewitnesses who were caught up in this situation, the attack apparently when they stormed the hotel were screaming god is great in arabic. we understand that some of the hostages were released. they were allowed to go when

asked to recite verses of the koran. if they were able to, they were allowed to leave the hotel. clearly this points to some kind of extremist ideology, the kind we've seen in mali in the region for several years. you know, reports suggest that groups involved in extremism in this part of the world, you know, do pledge allegiance to the likes of al-qaeda. many wonder is this linked to isis, isil, what happened in paris, it's not clear. it's only speculation, but there is some historical background and context to all of this, which is this is not the first time there's been this five attack. obviously this maybe is making the headlines a little more, because it comes off the back of the terrible atrocity that is we saw in paris last week, but earlier in the year in mali were two attacks, one happened in march, apparently at the restaurant bullets were fired,

people were killed, several international foreigners were killed in this event that took place there. then in august, there was something very similar to what's unfolding now at the raddison blu hotel but on a much smaller scale in a central malien town, apparently five u.n. workers were shot dead there by gunmen. in the aftermath of both those attacks, there were reports saying, suggesting that these groups, you know pledged some kind of loyalty, allegiance to the likes of al-qaeda. obviously now the question being asked and raised understandably and naturally is is it the same people, are these the same group, are the motives the same, what do they want? that's the question everybody is asking and simply is not clear. even though the siege has been going on for at least five hours, no one group has said we are responsible for this, we are behind what's going on at the

raddison blu. >> as that situation evolves and continues over the coming hours, it was a multi-agency response. we heard the u.n., we had french special forces. they are heading that way, but we had french forces involved today. we've got malien forces, malien special forces and u.s. special forces, as well. >> that's right, a u.n. defense spokesperson said there were 20-25 personnel, security personnel. american security personnel who happened to be in bamako. not sure what they were doing, maybe training, who knows, obviously mali given the political instability and security situation has been working with international partners like the u.s. to try to bring greater security to the country, following the political instability i just explained. now the question is what role they have played exactly. now reports suggest that they have helped with getting

civilians to diffuse the situation, but clearly obviously malien authorities would be relying on i guess so some extent help and assistance, wherever needed, if it's needed from partners like the united states, obviously bringing a wealth of expertise and experience of these kinds of hostage situations. in general, the security situation people that should have been fairly good, this is a hotel that's very central in the capitol, that's well fortified, good security, simply because it's frequented by lots of diplomatic staff, government officials, lots of international events take place there. many people who would have been staying at the hotel would be foreigners. we already know of internationalities involved, the french, turks, nigerians, chinese, indians, that will give you a sense of the fact that this is a very international location. security would have been good,

reports that some of the vehicle that is they arrived in or the vehicle, not clear how many vehicles, had diplomatic license plates. were they tricked into opening up and turned the situation into what it is. all of these questions will i think be answered in do course by the various security agencies involved in trying to if i have fuse the situation. obviously the most important thing right now is he getting people out and alive. we already know at least three people have been killed. >> the security personnel have surrounded the hotel and are receiving assistance from the french and american embassies. >> what we know so far is that three armed attackers were able to enter the hotel. we have activated the group in charge of internal affairs and security and surrounded the

hotel. we are receiving assistance from the french and americans. we can't give you precise number of people who have managed to escape or that have been freed. they are now being held in a gym nearby. two security forces have been injured during the operation. we call on everyone to be vigilant. >> muhammed has reported out of mali extensively. wrap this up for us, what do we know, what do we not know? >> what we don't know so far is much more than with with what we know. 170 people were in that hotel taken hostage, scores of them, around 80 have been freed. ten gunman, according to most reports, some reports say there are less than 10, some say two are holed up in that hotel. apparently they are taking some host ones. we don't know who are the types of nationalities targeted by

these hostage takers. we have seen reports that some turks, among the people who are in the hotel, were released. we have in the last few minutes, talking about six u.s. citizens being released and that's they are quoting an army general in the army commander in the africa command, the american troops in africa. some are in mali. american special forces are helping in this. we have quite a confusing situation still. lots of nationalities there, not clear the demands of the host only takers, not clear what nationality they want to keep. we have those reports about them al jazeera allah akbar but that doesn't indicate much to me. any muslim in general, even if he is not an extremist if he is in such a heightened situation, they say allah akbar, so it doesn't say much about the identity of attackers. >> it's a very western media way of lookinging on what's

happened. journalists are clutching at straws because they want to report something about this whiles ongoing. there's an al-qaeda affiliate, seems to be percolating to the as follows here. what's your reading of that? >> the traditional one is al-qaeda and they have off shoots inside mali. as far as i'm concerned, i don't have specific information, independent information, verifiable that one particular group is more likely than another. we have a group, a new group which is said to be an off shoot of al-qaeda and it is mainly made up of black malien people who are angry against their government. the likelihood that it is not is only 50%, because we have a high profile situation here where clearly westerners targeted. i would imagine that masna would

target, they are angry at the mali government. it is confusing. i can't say that one particular group is more likely to have been behind these attacks. >> help me out only one. would they be more likely or less likely to be inspired to go after a target that is obviously not malien, because if you looked at the guest rental industry in the hotel, it's multi national, multi-ethnic. in that sense, what you said wouldn't make particular sense, but if they're inspired by that the events this time last week in paris, they might say that's the right target to go for. >> that's a good analysis to me. that's good. i think if we are allowed to speculate, we can say that it's most likely people who have a regional or international agenda involved in these attacks much more than locals, prim article angry against the malien government, even though we know there are patterns like this one. you want to make it more -- much

more highlighted internationally and you take foreign host ones, but that doesn't serve your caused. here we have a pattern that indicates that there is a hand for al-qaeda or isis. isis sometimes before they announce their presence in a certain country, they do something like this, a high profile attack to say that we are here, but we're still waiting for them. i think probably, if it is isis or al-qaeda, probably the reason they haven't claimed responsibility is because the situation is still unfolding and to them and we were countries who have host ones there, it could be the only explanation why we don't yet have more clarity, because little still going on. >> very briefly and not trying to make light of what's going on in bamako right now because it is such a combustible situation, literally. would it be fair to say that on their own with that the maliens are not up to handle this, so we've seen the french, u.s. special forts, french special

forces en route, because they can't do it on their own, very briefly. >> there is no doubt about this. that's a fact. the malians can't handle the situation. and because this is a hotel, probably some of the many people inside in this hostage situation are werbers, usually western powers don't let local governments take the full responsibility. they don't leave the task to them, so they have to come and rescue those citizens. >> much more news on aljazeera.com. you can talk to us object facebook and twitter, as well. we'll wrap up all the major developments at the top of the our but will pause for the next 30 seconds to get you right up to speed with what's going on there. dozens and dozens are still headlight hostage inside that raddison blu hotel. we assume that the authorities are talking to the hostage takers. we'll get you right up to date with all the developments when we come back.

continuing coverage of an attack on a hoet nel mali, gunmen have taken hostages in the capitol city. heavy gunfire was heard from the area in the last few hours. secure city sources and the hotel's operator say 174 people were originally being held. some have been released. and three however, have been killed. let's take a closer look at where the radisson blue is located. it is a massive hotel, taking up an entire