hello, i'm barbara sarah, coming up in the next 60 minutes. belgian police arrest the most wanted fugitive from the paris attacks. he was caught after a shootout with police in brussels, and is reported to have suffered a leg injury. this comes four months after coordinate attacks in paris in which 130 people were killed.

♪ the most wanted fugitive from the paris attacks salah abdeslam has been arrested. he has been on the run since november's attacks in paris in which 130 were killed. he was reportedly wounded in this afternoon's operations. the local deputy mayor says he was shot in the leg. again, this was the scene earlier as heavily armed police raided the apartment in musselbeck, witnesses say they heard several exchanges of

gunfire as police surrounded the apartment block. and then there was white smoke seen rising from the roof top. let's go straight to brussels and speak to natasha butler. tell us a little bit about what is going on there right now. >> reporter: as far as we know this police operation is ongoing, but just a few moments ago, just behiepgd me, a long line of police cars with their sirens came through this cordon. i'm just next to a cordon here. whether that means that perhaps this operation is winding down, we don't know. but all we do know is there is still a heavy police presence. we do know that this raid took place right close to a school, so that's why there are many people along this cordon. they are just behind me, and people waiting to pick up their

children from school. so at the moment still a heavy police presence. >> and do we have any idea, natasha, where he is right now? we did get motivation from them that he has been injured in the leg. in that has been confirmed. >> reporter: that's right. as you say confirmed that he was actually injured in this raid, injured in the leg. we did hear reports from belgian media that he was taken away to hospital but we weren't able to confirm that. what we are expecting a bit later is a press conference, or at least a statement, i should say by the french president, and the belgian prime minister. now of course the french president was in brussels as were all of the e.u. leaders, because there was a huge e.u.

summit here today, an e.u. turkey summit. francois hollande left the summit saying he would speak a little bit later. the belgian prime minister swiftly left the summit a little bit earlier today. people were wondering why he left so fast. now we know why. >> indeed. for the moment, natasha, thank you. now let's go to jacky rowland in paris. jacky any official reaction from france to this at this point? >> reporter: well there has been confirmation from the french police as well of the apprehension of saleh abdeslam. there was a joint operation on tuesday on a different

neighborhood. and we discovered only a few hours ago today, friday that dna and a fingerprint has been found on the premise of that flat. we know one person was killed on tuesday, and that two people escaped, and belgian media are saying it's believed that one of those who escaped from that raid on tuesday was perhaps saleh abdeslam. he was of course europe's most wanted fugitive. >> jacky just remind us what was his role or what is he meant to have done as part of those attacks in paris. >> reporter: he was driving one

of the three vehicles used in those attacks against restaurants, the football stadium and concert hall on november the 13th. we escaped. we know he abandoned the car he was driving in the north of paris we all know on the same night he bought a sim card which he used to call friends to come pick him up. it does seem extraordinary that at the time his photograph was circulated that he was able to travel across an international border into belgium. we understand the car he was driving was stopped by police, and cctv video showed him at a petro pump also at a motorway service station during that journey in the early hours on the 14th of november.

so he was actually there on the night. crucially the only one who survived as far as we're aware, so as we have been hearing earlier. obviously with the kind of intelligence that he has, knowledge of names, polices, people, will be absolutely key, and that will be something that the french and belgian authorities will be anxious to get as soon as he is in a position to be questioned. because we understand he has been taken to the hospital after being shot in the leg. we can assume he will be under very tight surveillance and as soon as he can be questioned we can expect very intensive ination gags of abdeslam. >> jacky thank you.

sir, thank you for joining us here on al jazeera. your reaction to this capture after four months of police desperately trying to find this man. >> yes, you are right. i'm glad the fourth time was the good one to catch him, because they most probably missed him on tuesday another couple of times. what is really telling about the whole story is how safe he felt in belgium. he didn't even try to flee. so he must have had very extensive support network, and i suspect that belgian and french security services are going to look closely at the people that gave him shelter or help in any way, shape, or form. >> that is certainly going to be one avenue of investigation, but

i guess it would have been very difficult for him to try to leave europe at the same time, for him to try to reach syria? >> yes, and no, because we have seen in many cases that the paris attackers were able to come in a couple of times before the attacks of paris undetected and remember that algear an operator was killed on tuesday had fake belgian id, and now turns out to be one of the coordinators of the attack. >> okay. we're going to have to leave it there. we need to go straight back now to brussels and speak to natasha butler. there have been developments. tell us. >> reporter: that's right. i'm in the mullenbeck area where the raid happened and where saleh abdeslam was arrested. we just heard two really large

bangs. we don't know what that means, but two very large explosions. earlier some eyewitnesss said there were such explosions also of course a got of gunshot heard. so whether this means -- i mean you would sort of assume that that is telling us that this operation is ongoing, because we weren't completely sure, we have seen police cars move out of the area with their sirens going. those two big bangs that perhaps this operation is very much underway still. >> explain it for us, because it's hard for us to get the bearings watching the images coming in. the bangs that you heard did they come from the building where we presume he was captured or is separate building? can you tell? >> i really couldn't tell you that. all we know is that we heard two very big bangs. there were -- at the other end of the street behind me.

now we are quite far down this street. it has been completely cordoned off by police. so those bangs came from the area to the right of my shoulder, but which building they came from, or if they even came from a building, i can't confirm that. >> are you getting a sense that more police are coming? or do you get the sense that when it comes to the police, things are quieting down? >> reporter: i think that was the sense that we had before, because we saw quite a few police vehicles leaving, but this cordon is still very much here. the police were here when we first arrived standing in the street with their sniffer dogs and vehicles, with some ambulances. and they are still here. and of course nobody is being let through. the people from the local area are all clustered and clumped in different areas, all of them

wondering what is going on mchl many of them live here and just want to go home, but there's no chance they will get through at this stage. the only people that they might let through, they said are the parents of some of the school children who are in a school where this raid has happened. but everybody else is being kept well back away from the site. >> natasha, you will be monitoring of course all of the developments there for us for the moment, thank you. >> reporter: of course news of saleh abdeslam's capture is big news in europe, but there has been reaction from the united states as well on his capture. i'm joined now from washington, d.c. by kimberly halkett. kimberly what was that reaction? >> reporter: this was the subject of a line of questioning at the recent white house press

briefing. we do know that president obama will be briefed on the developments by his national security team, as well we know by the statements made by the press secretary, that the united nations as well as belgium and french officials have been in close contact for quite sometime. ak coring to josh earnest that included really notifying the president, national security officials within minutes of the paris attacks. so we do know the u.s. has been since that time offering what it calls significant resources, capabilities. they have been used in part as well in this ongoing investigation, and while we don't have any sort of outline of the specific details what we do know is that this did include the use of u.s. intelligence officials as well as national security officials to track what the press secretary calls the perpetrators, and there have been deep ties between the counterparts for quite sometime.

in fact it was his view that both belgian authorities and french authorities found many of the u.s. assets if you will, useful. the other thing that we were told is that the u.s. does continue to standing with the counterparts as they were referred as they continue to confront the ongoing threat, but what was interesting is that josh earnst said that he felt an operation today would not have been possible without the u.s. contribution. now, again, this is sort of an ongoing development that is continuing to be updated with national security officials here in the united states. we know that president obama will get a complete and concise briefing if not already underway. imminently, and we are told -- and reporters were told that in fact that the counterparts in both belgium, france, and the united states will continue to stay in close consultation. >> kimberly thank you. let's just remind you of the breaking news that we have had

in the past hour that saleh abdeslam the most wanted man in europe and one of the attackers -- art of the paris attacks back in november has been captured in a police raid in paris. he is a 26 year old french national who was born in brussels and lived in the mullenbeck area where he has been captured today. he has been on the run since november 13th. he and two other men were stopped just hours after the paris attacks but were allowed to go on their way. his brother was one of the paris attackers who died after blowing himself up. joined now in the studio by paul brennan who has been following

all of the developments of those attacks since they happened in november. first of all what is your impression, reaction to this arrest. >> reporter: first of all we saw the photograph of saleh abdeslam just there. i would be sewerous to know what he looks like now. has he changed his appearance somewhat? because to remain on the run for four months is no mean feet. it's difficult, i would imagine. and the ability of him and his support group to keep him out of the attention of the police is also something that the intelligent services will want to understand. the other thing is that the deputy mayor is saying that -- he has confirmed that saleh has been captured, had been rounded in the leg, and

another man has been arrested too, and a third person may have been involved and may still be in that address. that might offer some explanation as to why we just heard the sounds. it could be stun grenades. it could be frame charges which are used by the special police to take out a window frame in its entirety, it could be they are just popping in the windows as in burst in the windows to make it uncomfortable for somebody inside. so there are various possibilities as to those two explosions which stopped very much short of another explosive reason. the other thing that has instruct me as we have been

reporting this is the opportune nature of this [ inaudible ] today. the arrest of salah appears to be more by luck in judgment. the raid that took place on tuesday in which one accomplice were killed. the police were not expecting to find an isil cell in that forest district. they were likely armed, and as a result of their lack of preparation the two suspects were able to flee that scene. if you look at the structure of the police and intelligence service, it is startled to realize in brussels where you have nato headquarters, the e.u. headquarters, they have only 1200 intelligence employees. the structure of the police, for example, is very much split between different areas of the

city. each area of the city operates almost autonomously, and there is jealousies between the french speaking and finish speaking sides. which analysts believe may have made it possible that the cell was able to conceive of the attack, carry out the attack, and then melt away back into the area with such apparent ease. >> do you think when this is analyzed it will be seen as a success for belgium police or highlight the fact that for four months this man was in brussels and managed to evade them. >> well, there have been raids almost on a daily basis. i think it's very interesting to hear kimberly from america on this one. because the u.s. state department, i think it was, has been saying that they have been

giving resources to the belgium police, as well as u.k. intelligence services have been contributing to the manhunt. and it would be curious to know kind of resources we're talking about. the kind of expertise, hardware and software that perhaps belgium hasn't had until now. so whether they can claim it as the result of dogged and effective police work, we'll wait and see. >> we will indeed. paul thank you so much. and now we can go to paris and speak to the political scientist. thank you so much for joining us here on al jazeera. we were just talking about the cooperation between the police forces, the belgium and the french. is this arrest a success, or do you think it raises questions as to why this man wasn't captured before. >> he was not captured before

because probably he managed to escape from the different nets. just remember when he was involved in the paris attacks in november, he managed to escape to belgium, and some people went to take him from belgium. going back to belgium. so it is showing that belgium is today the real center of that terrorist network, and it is extremely important that belgium clap -- collaborate on this. >> do you think this will be a huge cue for the intelligence services in europe not just to find out more information, but really to find out more about any potential isil-linked cells that there may be across europe? >> yeah, it's obviously going to be an extremely significant [ inaudible ] we are going to know much more details about the

organization. who has been arrested is one of the organizers. he was not directly involved in the killings, but he was clearly one of the organizers. the [ inaudible ] on tuesday during the first attack in belgium was always one of the brains. we're getting to know much more things about the organization, and also it is going to make it probably easier for the collaboration between france and belgium for success. >> what reaction have you heard or do you expect from the french authorities on this? >> it is extremely likely that it is going to be considering this a clear successing for francois hollande. we all know that [ inaudible ] france is still extremely exposed to the danger of terrorist attacks. most of the people in france and

paris consider that [ inaudible ] so it is a very significant step [ inaudible ] obviously, but it's not the end of the [ inaudible ]. the popularity of francois hollande [ inaudible ] the unpopular french president is still going to be unpopular. but it is going to add a little bit of positive [ inaudible ] to the way the public evaluates what hollande is doing. >> thank you for speaking to us from paris. and let's stay in paris and speak to al jazeera's jacky rowland. again, jacky there is a lot going on in brussels. we have heard there might have been two other shots. we hear there are two other people that may have been arrested. a lot of details still to come out. what do you think french police may have been looking for, what

is their main interest right now? >> reporter: the french police are obviously interested in trying to find out whether there are any other leads as surely there must be in this apartment in terms of forensic evidence. whether it be dna or -- or also any computer evidence. the ballistics will give them more indications of anyone else who could have been involved in planning and carrying out the paris attacks. obviously it was a huge operation. there were a number of coordinated attacks that took place at the same time. we know [ inaudible ] team of actual gunmen and attackers themselves were comparatively small. this is the tip of a much larger network of people who provide weapons, provided financing, provided safe houses. clearly the police will be widening out the web, and obviously one of the main ways

of doing that will be to start interrogating salah abdeslam as soon as he is finished with whatever treatment he is having in the hospital at the moment. and of course with the other objective of trying to prevent further attacks since we have seen in recent days in paris as well, that there have been ongoing search operations, as the police continue with all of these special security measures that are permitted under the state of emergency which is still in force in france. >> and france really traumatized last year, starting on the attacks with charlie hebdo, and the kosher supermarket, and then the attacks in november. so people there deeply shocked. do you get the sense that people

around paris have heard that he has been captured? what kind of reaction, if any have you noticed? >> well, i have to say i haven't gotten much reaction, because the moment i heard about the possible apprehension, i jumped on a train, and i'm close to brussels now. but in recent days and still in france, i think people are still quite nervous, or people's nerves are almost like on a hair trigger. we heard about search operations. we heard a week ago, police arrested or questions four teenagers who they said were apparently planning an attack against a concert hall or theater, just a couple of days ago in paris there was a raid in which four people were arrested. again, they were accused of having what was described as an

intellectual project. so there is this ongoing sense of nervousness, insecurity, the idea that there are still people out there, in and around paris who have ideas, who have certain kinds of ideology, and even if they haven't been putting in to practical place though elements of an attack, never mind they still have ideas, dream, fantasize or whatever about carrying out attacks, and that makes the police's work and intelligence services work more difficult, because at what stage does an idea actually become a threat, and that's why so many search operations have been carried out. >> jacky rowland speaking to us from france, jacky thank you. and now -- i think we can go

back to mullenbeck. you can see the live pictures there, again. you see police going through the police cordon. these are live pictures coming us to from the neighborhood where the raid took place earlier today. now we know that in that raid salah abdeslam was not and apprehended. we heard that two further hots were heard. we couldn't decipher at the time where they came from the same building or nearby building. they were just loud bang sounds. we are trying to connect again with our correspondent there in the mullenbeck neighborhood of brussels. we're going to take a quick break now, and we'll back with

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welcome back. salah abdeslam has been arrested. abdeslam has been on the run since november ea's attack's in paris. he was reported by wounded at the scene. the local deputy major says abdeslam was shot in the leg. and this was the scene earlier. witnesses say that they heard several exchanges of gunfire as police surrounded the apartment block. reporters also said there was

white smoke seen rising from the roof tops. let's speak natasha butler. did you manage to get a sense of what the situation was all about? >> reporter: well, what we have been saying over the last few moments is certainly small bursts of activity from the police. we heard two very large explosions, earlier, a few seconds between each of them. coming from the top of the streets. it's quite dark so you probably can't see, but there is a cluster where the police were clustered. after that we saw police officers bring sniffer dogs up the street, but we have been

seeing those kinds of bursts of activities since we have been here. the investigation very much continues. what is really interesting is in this area in molenbeek, this was an area where just after the november 13th paris attacks belgian police carried out a large raid. they thought at the time that sala abdeslam was in one of the buildings that they raided. that building is just a ways away. so it is extraordinary to think that this most wanted man that has been looked for all across europe was in fact, perhaps all this time in brussels, not only in brussels but in this molenbeek area. >> and we can still people gathering behind you.

and we saw some tempers fraying, people shouting at police. what is the general sentiment of the people watching all of this go on? >> reporter: well this molenbeek area has been the focus of police since the november 13th attacks. it's an under privileged area, but an area where some of the attackers had linked too. some lived here, some came from here, so it has been the heart of this investigation, so i think local people are perhaps getting fed up with the focus on this area. that said, many people seem to be -- seem to be quite happy -- happy to hear that somebody like salah abdeslam has been caught, and perhaps their

lives can move on. one woman found it extraordinary that he could be found here in molenbeek after living here with so many police and so many raids over the past few months. the fact that he has now been found here, right in the heart of brussels, you could say almost under the police noses is really extraordinary. >> it really is. natasha thank you. let's bring you a quick reminder of who salah abdeslam actually is. he is a french national who lived in brussels and lived in the area where he had been captured. he and two other men were stopped in a vehicle near the belgian border hours after the attack, but allowed to go on their way. he is believed to have rented a car in belgian which was later

found near a concert hall where 89 people were killed. his brother was one of the paris attackers who died after blowing himself up. let's go back to paul brennan who has been with me in the studio for the past few hours. we have a new development, what is it? >> yes, i'm monitoring the wires here, and reuters can quoting a belgian newspaper which is reporting that the third brussels raid suspect has now been captured. that would tie in with those two loud bangs that natasha was reporting. and ties in with the statement by the deputy major who spoke about abdeslam being arrested and wounded, a second man being arrested, and a third man still

being holed up in the house. so it appears that the police have now gone in according to this report and captured that third person. >> from what we know this started on tuesday with a raid on another neighborhood. do we understand that those three men were there and managed to escape. >> that is looking like the most likely scenario. the belief that he was in that flat in forest, comes from the fact that just earlier today, the authorities announced that they found a fingerprint, one of abdeslam's fingerprints in that flat. he was surprised when the police arrived. he then went on the run, and as a result, three days later he has now been captured. so the chain of events, although it dates back four months, but

this particular crisis appears to have been sparked by that initial raid on tuesday, two people escapes, widely believed that abdeslam was one of those two who escaped now arrested. >> there was so much focus on molenbeek, and it seems he might have been hiding in a middle class nice -- a neighborhood where i guess you don't expect that kind of thing to happen. >> exactly. and even if you speak to people in molenbeek they were surprised that a cell of the ferocity to cause the carnage that we saw in paris could have emanated from molenbeek. it is not the hot bed of radicalism that it was portrayed of back in november.

i would be curious to know what he looks now. we have seen those photographs from the initial wanted poster. has he changed his appearance? as he been able to move around? all of those questions will be answered when we get more information from the police. but the police and intelligence services will be very relieved they have managed to capture their most wanted suspect. >> and captured live. he seems to be -- from what we understand it's not a serious injury. >> we would certainly be available to be questioned if it's just a leg wound. whether he will cooperate with the police is another matter all together nflt he is perfectly entitled not to answer police questions. we'll see. >> paul brennan, thank you. for more on this, we're joined on the line by security analyst

justin crump. i don't know how much you have been able to hear, but it really does seem that after four months of -- of the investigation going on, all of this really happened over the past four days. >> very quickly, indeed, really, given how long they have been looking for this individual. as you said, almost europe's most wanted, and very close to where we have been looking for him since the end of november and beginning of december. and it was reported not long after the paris attacks he was seen saying he was in brussels. i think that shows the movement of people is perhaps more difficult than we may have feared recently. one other good thing is he is the last surviving attacker that

we have caught of the attacks, he is therefore, again, very useful for information, and that is going to be key. >> and the fact that it may well be that he has been in brussels all of this time, do you think that will be seen as a failure by belgian police and intelligence the fact that it took them four months to find him and then it was almost by mistake. >> well, i have some concerns about western germany, for example, where we believe there are connections. i know the german forces are concerned about that as well. and the free movement over the borders helps that. so again, i think they have helped networks and people hide from this period of time. but those networks are being unravelled and i think that is a success at this stage that he has not been able to escape, move on, and he was still in

that area. and i think we have seen smaller plots be disrupted in recent weeks, and that goes back to the unravelling of people. and i think capturing one of the key people, at least in terms of his reputation, and a logistical organizer of the plot, the detonators, the booked the cars, he booked the hotel rooms, he seems to have known a lot about the organization, and i think that will be very telling as we get into that level of knowledge that he has, as we understand more about how the operation was planned tactically and potentially also the scale of the network. again, i see some strong successes. >> security analyst justin crump thank you. >> thank you. >> now we can speak to jacky rowland who is in paris, but on

her way to brussels now. jacky obviously you have been following all of thefallout from those attacks. how key is abdeslam going to be, especially if he cooperates to the investigation? jacky rowland speaking to us from paris -- no? well, she is on a train on the way to brussels. so unfortunately i think the line dropped there. we will of course try to speak to her again a little bit later in the program. as we continue to follow developments. i'm now being told that jacky rowland is on the line. jacky can you hear me? >> yes, i can. >> great. my question is how key is salah abdeslam going to be to this investigation especially if he decides to cooperate? >> reporter: hello? >> jacky rowland if you can hear

me. it's barbara sarah live in the studio, and we are now live on air. my question to you -- i know you are in a train on your way to brussels, how key will salah abdeslam's capture be to the investigation in >> absolutely key, because unlike most of the other perpetrators in the attacks he is alive. he understand he was shot in the leg during the arrest operation. clearly he'll be under very tight surveillance in the hospital. we don't know whether he has lost a lot of blood or what condition he is in, but obviously as soon as he is fit to be interrogated, he will be. french and belgian security services will be anxious to piece together more pieces of the puzzle. most of the attackers died, either shot to death or blew

themselves up on the night of the attacks. obviously live evidence from a survivor will really help the authorities in trying to find out more on how these attacks were carried out and crucially to try to prevent any future attacks. >> tell us about the situation -- because we have seen a lot of the investigation go on in brussels. of course there was a raid on tuesday, that seemed to be what lead them to salah abdeslam. how many people have been arrested and questioned still in relation to the attacks in november? >> there were of course, criticisms about what have been perceived as intelligence failings. failure to share sufficient intelligence between belgian and french intelligence services. in recent days we have seen

greater coordination. on tuesday when there was a raid against a property in the forest district of belgium, it was a joint operation involving both french and belgium police. on wednesday there was an operation before dawn in [ inaudible ] one in the northern part of paris, one within the city limits itself in which four people were arrested. all part of the special security arrangement under the state of emergency, really an indication of the extent to which the authorities are still trying to track down any evidence, any links to the paris attacks, but also to any potential future attacks. the difficulty i think, is that there is so much chatter out there, and in particular the four people who were arrested on wednesday in paris it is being described as an intellectual

project. rather than any concrete practical plan that was being put into place. so it is difficult to tell the difference between ideas and people who actually pose a threat. and i think that's one of the things that really explains why there have been so many hundreds of raids and arrests and questioning, the mass imagine yo -- majority of whom were released afterwards. >> jacky thank you. now we're joining by political scientist guillen. first of all, how important do you think this is when it comes to the cooperation between the two forces, belgian and french police, because they have been criticized for effectively letting abdeslam slip through their hands. >> yes, well i think it's very

positive in that the french and belgium police got into important intelligence. but it does not solve the lack of cooperation and lack of reactivity from the belgian intelligence service. we know there was a local police report speaking about abdeslam's brothers stating they were ready to act, and i quote, a reliable source, saying they were in contact and that they were chanting all around the fact that they were ready for violence. so i mean it still asks questions not to get into after the 13th of november, but before, and the fact that perhaps intelligence security forces should cooperate more. >> and we don't know the details

yet, but it is possible that salah abdeslam has actually been in brussels since right after those attacks in paris. how much of a failure would it be for belgian police and intelligence if that turns out to be the case? >> that is pretty astonishing, actually molenbeek had [ inaudible ] again. we know there was some operation in other areas, but molenbeek again, even though abdeslam was from here and that of course caused police to organize some kind of inquiries in this part of belgium. so yes, it is pretty astonishing that he was actually still in the capitol, and perhaps he moved away and came back and forth. but we might have to reinforce

the local [ inaudible ]. but is the local population ready for that in europe. for announced [ inaudible ] of people, it's a little bit against the [ inaudible ] as well. so you see you are obviously facing some new dilemmas. >> sir, thank you so much for sharing your views with us here on al jazeera. let's have reaction from europe, of course, but not just from europe. we can cross the united states and speak to kimberly halkett in washington, d.c. for us. there has been reaction there as well. tell us what it is. >> absolutely. obviously there is tremendous interest here in the united states. it has been the subject of questioning at a number of washington briefings. the most recent the u.s. state department where officials said that they were unclear about the u.s. involvement in this raid and capture, and were referring all questions to belgian

authorities. we did get a better understanding of maybe some of the role of the united states playing in this capture from josh earnest, the white house press secretary who was also speaking to reporters and asked specifically about the u.s. involvement. he did mention that president obama would be briefed by his national security team on the latest development, but at the same time said that the united states has been in very close consultation with french and belgian authorities. intelligence as well for statement. within minutes of the paris attacks occurring in november, what we know in terms of that consultation is that there was a coordination of resources and assets that were taking place. what we do know is that the united states had a very clear understanding of the role it wanted to play in the assistance in helping to offer assistance, but also to help safeguard the

countries. we know u.s. intelligence has been involved. national security officials have been involved. there have been deep ties, and ak coring to josh earnst, there were a number of capabilities, that in his words, french and belgian authorities found useful n nfl. -- the united states is of the view and mind set that this raid and operation would not have been possible without some united states involvement. so that gives you an understanding of the level of involvement the u.s. may have played in all of this. we do know that there is going to be a complete briefing of president obama on these details and apparently that has been something that has been ongoing, but also between the nations as they coordinate this effort. in the worlds of the white house press secretary, the

counterparts will remain in close touch. >> kimberly thank you. now let's bring you these latest pictures coming in from brussels. they show a man being arrested and dragged into a car by police. it is believed that the man is salah abdeslam. although that hasn't been confirmed yet. pictures during the day. you can see the man being dragged into a car. difficult to get a glimpse, really, of him. the belgian and french officials are expected to give a press conference. but those pictures coming in, we assume of the arrest of abdeslam earlier. let's go to molenbeek and speak to our correspondent who has

been following all of the developments. quite a lot of action. we have heard shots. we also heard that a third suspect has been arrested. have you been able to put the two together or are police not releasing anymore details? >> reporter: we can't confirm any link between that third suspect being arrested and those two explosions we heard earlier. those two explosions very loud, a few seconds apart just coming from about 100 meters up the road behind me. i know there are quite a few police officers behind me, but about 100 meters is where the action is all going on. two big explosions, many shots during the afternoon, and now we're hearing about a third suspect being arrested. what we do know is that abdeslam was arrested earlier, he was wounded in the leg and we're told taken to hospital.

people here in molenbeek they have been gathering all afternoon in this area where i'm standing. cordoned off, we're pretty much being pushed right back off of the street by the police. but the people here -- some people were wondering what was happening earlier on, but of course, everybody here now knows what is happening. people are listening to the radio, talking to each other, and this is the sort of time when people are coming home from work trying to get back into their streets, and they can't move past the police. so that's why we think this operation still very much underway. >> reporter: natasha butler, thank you very much for that. paul brennan is still with me here in the studio. we were just watching those images of a man being arrested earlier today, put into a police car. what did you make of those images? >> you can infer it is connected with this raid without a doubt.

but two people were arrested in that first phase. the person bundled into the car looks like he could be injured, but it's too early to say. >> all right. paul brennan thank you very much for that. just a reminder to our viewers just joining us now, what are major breaking news story is here on al jazeera, and that is the 26 year old frenchmen who was part of the attackers in november, those attacks on the 13th of november where 130 people died in paris has been arrested in brussels. you can see the live images of the molenbeek neighbor where we understand he was arrested in a raid a few hour ago, earlier on friday. that's it for me and the rest of the news hour team. we'll all of the developments on that story for you in the next few minutes.

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>> any refugees from greece will be sent back.