i'm hala gorani. >> i'm john berman. we are standing on the champs elyllis. we have new details of the ring leader and architect of the attacks in paris. >> it is really stunning, according to the source close to the investigation. abdelhamid abaaoud was seen, we understand on cctv footage as the bataclan scene was under way. >> he was four kilometers away. it is something as you said that he could have been there as these attacks were going on. we had described to us. we have not seen it ourselves, but operating in a subway station. this as an international manhunt is under way for additional suspects including salah abdeslam. >> new information as well regarding the woman who blew herself up during the operation. according to sources who have been speaking to cnn. she has been identified at hasna aitboulahcen. you can hear police confront her before she detonated her bomb. listen. [ speaking french ] >> officials tell us that police have taken the woman's mother and brother in for questioning. that

i'm hala gorani. >> and i'm john berman. welcome to the special coverage of the terror attack. we have been here all week. >> france is under a state of emergency. the first time the entire nation has been under such a state of emergency in more than 50 years. >> right now, french lawmakers debating whether to extend the state of emergency for three more months. the debate comes the day after the bloody and dramatic raid on two apartments in a paris suburb. >> hundreds of police officers, special forces, military troops descended on a building north of paris in saint-denis early wednesday looking for the man who is believed to have orchestrated the friday attacks. abdelhamid abaaoud. he's belgian. investigators are trying to determine if one of the bodies in the building there is abaaoud. >> there was so much destruction, they have to sift through the body parts and try to match the dna if they can get it. they say one woman blew herself up at the beginning of the raid. she was wearing some kind of suicide belt. she has been

i'm john berman in paris. >> i'm hala gorani. you are watching our special coverage of the paris terror attacks. >> so much happening here in the investigation in paris, but there is breaking news involving isis elsewhere. news out of russia. the russian president vladimir putin just essentially announcing in this staged media event that russian officials now believe it was a bomb, a 1 kilogram bomb that brought down the metrojet over the sinai peninsula. >> it was a bomb a little more than two pounds. according to the head of the federal security service. you remember the jet crashed last month in the sinai peninsula. after departing from the resort of sharm el sheikh and all 224 people on board died. >> let's get the latest on this from moscow. matthew chance is there. matthew, up until this point, russia has been slow to say this is terror. now this dramatic announcement from the russian president himself. >> reporter: well, if i'm not mistaken, this is the first time that it's been confirmed from anyone that a bomb is the cau

q chris cuomo and hala gorani.gators are trying to figure out who is involved with these killings in paris. we go to brussels. there is an expansion of raids. what do we know. >> reporter: we are on our way to the neighborhood that is the heart of this investigation to try and catch those that are believed to be part of this broader support network. belgian authorities are telling us that three arrests have been made. they also confirmed in a press conference yesterday they believe this is linked to that black volkswagen polo that police identified as they believe is part of those attacks. the man driving that and police that is rented that car, he is the focal point of this search and police have not confirmed whether he has been picked up. this was part of the "charlie hebdo" attacks. there is a long history of this terror network stretching across this country. they believe with the counterparts that now needs to be the time this is neutralized and isolated the threat they believe is only going to grow. chris? >

john and hala. >> all right. our ivan watson in brussels. so many threads from brus els where ivan is. the hunt is on there. in sontene, north of paris, raids overnight of huge significance. >> this is really a story that's unfolded and expanded over two countries. what was it? so much connection right now through the suspects to belgium as well and right back to sontene. our senior correspondent joins us with the latest on this dramatic overnight raid. tell us more. >> reporter: that's right. it started at 4:30 this morning. residents woke up to automatic gunfire and an explosion. it was a round first and a lull and a second round of gunfire, sustained gunfire. in fact, we spoke to one resident when all of a sudden he had to evacuate and police were telling him to come out. he rushed in to get his 3-year-old daughter and came out safely. but this was the kind of tense and surreal and dramatic situation there morning. we thern heard those explosions, one after another six or seven explosions in alling possibly controlled detonations. it now

joining us now is cnn anchor hala gorani and melissa bell. hala, we are waiting. was it abaaoud?e big challenge is in order to conduct dna tests, you have to test it against dna of abdelhamid abaaoud. presumably not on any database. they have to find relatives. it will take time. challenge number two as well as what happened in the apartment, explosives were used. there was resistance. there is an entire floor in the building that is not structurally sound. it takes a lot of effort and a lot of planning and some risk involved as far as the investigators are concerned to enter the building and continue the tests. >> 5,000 rounds fired in the raid. melissa, this discussion of whether it was in fact abaaoud or not, obscures the issue. the mere suspicion that it was. the suspicion that this guy could have traveled back and forth to syria and the focus of so much concern in belgium and the united states for the last year. extraordinary. >> and throughout this, his name came up quickly. the french authorities suggest he may have been the mastermind. obviously not physically on the grou

i'm chris cuomo with hala gorani. with cnn. >>> hello, i'm jake tapper in cnn and people still on edge and warning it may not be over and police all over the world are hunting many accomplices that may still be at large. one terrorist still being investigated, investigators found his finger on the floor where he blew himself up. his name is ismael mostefai. and some of his relatives are in custody.

hala certainly has justifiable basis to say it hasn't worked.nfluence if not of territory, but we just heard president obama say there has been containment within syria and isis doesn't have the stronghold there they did have. you get different opinions. what do you believe the reality is on the ground in syria right now? >> chris, of course geographically perhaps the footprint of isis in syria and iraq hasn't radically expanded. however, we have seen it more to franchise. just the other day we bombed or the french bombed against an isis facility in libya. we have seen it in the stands. we have seen it in afghanistan. we have seen what you've been talking about the last few minutes is perhaps many isis trained people onwhen suicide bomb bombers have come in with the flow of refugees and as a result they have planted these people ready for somebody maybe in bag dadthdadi to pull the trigger and mass chaos like we've seen in paris. it was a week ago we've hearn in british papers that was the strategy to infiltrate the refugee refugees. the new rev

i'm hala gorani. it is 9:00 a.m. here in paris. breaking news coverage. france is lashing out at isis in syria. and clamping down hard on suspected terrorists here at home. it is of course all a response to friday's deadly attacks in paris. attacks that the french prime minister says were "organized, conceived, and planned from syria." now, on sunday french warplanes conducted sorties. they struck the isis stronghold city of raqqa in northern syria. we understand several aircraft took off from bases in jordan nearby, but also from the gulf in the uae. there were simultaneous attacks and they hit isis command centers, this is according to the defense ministry. the defense ministry also saying they hit a recruiting facility and a training base. this is video distributed by the defense ministry itself. wanting to say we did this two days after the attacks. meanwhile, here's a map of france. and it shows you where police conducted raids across the country. a series of anti-terror raids. agency france presse reporting they happened in c

john and hala. >> 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. >> 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. this neighborhood to the north of the city where this has been taking place for several hours. what are you seeing? >> that's right. we're seeing police oermgs 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. >> that brings us to seven arrested. another two believed to have organized, the landlord for the apartment and then now another two in the vicinity. we are sti

it's interesting, hala, that's in french. not in arabic.ing the point here, while this may have been an isis plot. it was many believed. we still don't know, entirely possible that it was likely perpetrated by french nationals. >> that is what has so many people here on edge. now we don't know the eight known attackers, i should add, the french prosecutor's office says there are more than that. there is a much larger new yorker. one would have helped it would facilitate an attack of this nature. according to french media, the bodies of those eight attackers are being inspected. there are dna samples taken. essentially, investigators can find out who these men were, what their nationality were. what their background was, how they were able to pull off this unprecedented attack? >> all right, clarissa ward is near the concert hall where as we were saying, the worst attack took place, you just saw four vehicles, several of which were, in fact, forensic, vehicles there we believe carrying some of the bodies. many bodies still inside the concert

as far as the district is concerned, hala, there is very little life going on. public transport is not working. there's a few people coming through. but really, very, very little activity, as far as the local residents are concerned. a lot say they are concerned about what's going on. the fact there is an operation here. and possibly there were terrorists who were basically hiding in the middle of this neighborhood. >> fred is in saint-denis, where the operation has been ongoing for five hours right now. three suspected terrorists killed. five people now arrested, including three who were taken into custody from inside the apartments. we know the target of the operation was abdel hamid abaaoud, the belgian-born terrorist who was believed to be the mastermind behind the attacks on friday. was he there? was he killed? has he been arrested? unclear at this point. >> what we know, he was the target. that's what we can say for certain. joining us now here in paris, dramatic moments, watching bfm, unfolding for all of france to watch, was a war zone in saint-denis, no

i'm hala gorani in paris. >> and i'm john berman.overage of the paris terror attacks. this morning french police conducting dna tests to try to identify the two people, at least two people who died in a raid in an apartment, two apartments in saint dennis early on wednesday. >> we know, john, that the target was abdelhamid abaaoud, the man suspected of orchestrating, organizing these attacks in paris. his whereabouts still very much unknown at this stage. >> that's why they're testing the body parts found to try to find some kind of match to determine if he was dead. amateur video gives you a sense of the overwhelming force used in the raid. thousands of rounds fired. authorities say they moved in just in time they think to keep these people from launching another attack. >> now, apparently cell phones left behind at the scene of friday's attacks led them to the apartment. all in all, john, eight people have been arrested. this is going to be interesting because usually in these cases terrorists end up dead and then you have to sort

i agree with hala. there are strong economic ties between the two countries. three-fifths of the natural gas that turkey gets comes from russia. again, in this new interconnected world economically, we shouldn't be fighting each other. but they're both very common leader that sort of is emerging in different countries, this sort of strong plate of national allism. that's a dangerous factor at the same time. >> interesting, both of you agreeing on that. i guess despite putin's larger than life language, strong consequences and stabs in the back. what do you think happens next? >> well, i think, as i said, in the next few weeks perhaps no escalation. there's no real political or military will for that to happen. however, what this illustrates is quite -- is quite frightening in that the skies over syria are extremely crowded. mistakes happen. accidents happen. and any time a country engages itself militarily in a situation with the intent of conducting a quote unquote clean operation, it is always a slippery slope. i think this is where there is a real danger wh

hala gorani spoke with her in french.he woman asked us ton show her face or -- us not to show her face or use her real voice. >>> translator: he was one of the terrorists responsible for the worst attack in france in half a century. [ screams ] >> translator: one of three shooters at the bataclan concert hall on november 13th. his name revealed days later. sammy amimor. for the first time on international television, his sister is speaking out. at what point did you learn that your younger brother was one of the attackers? >> translator: at first, i was shocked. i was screaming in despair and sadness. when i gathered my thoughts, i thought this information was wrong. that there was a mistake. that it was impossible. >> reporter: a man who grew up to be a mass murderer, but whose life, according to his sister, started very differently. she shared personal pictures of her brother with us. the sami you knew, you're saying, was a nice guy. >> translator: exactly. he was a nice person, a sensitive person. a bit shy. somebody y

. >> with me now cnn international anchor hala gorani.id french police know about these apartments in saint-denis? >> over the last few days we know they found a car that they believed one of the attackers used. they also found a cell phone at the bat la can site, the site of the worst of the massacres friday evening. all of this intelligence led them to these apartments in san da knee. it's a suburb of paris. a major military operation, 5,000 rounds of ammunition in the space of several hours were used. we know there are seven individuals under arrest being questioned right now, two at least dead. but the scene we understand inside is going to take a very long time to process. it's not just that the bodies in some cases are in a space that is difficult to sort of -- i mean, to be perfectly blunt, you can't carry them out to a forensic lab. but also they have to use explosives and special weapons to get inside the apartment. the prosecutor has said that it was a reinforced door and in order to get in they had to use very heavy weaponry. y

we go to our inteteternational correspondent hala gorani with more. >> we heard the cop21 summit will as planned. we don't know if this event will be scaled back. there have been calls for postponement or cancellation of the climate change conference. these are two important things that came out of the meeting with the french president. >> how much of a challenge is internal? specifically for the french? we are hearing the cultural themes that we heard after "charlie hebdo." yes, the arab and muslim populations are french, but french in quotes. the sense of being second class citizens and not integration. what they are learning with the raids is there is so much integration and the network is broader than they expected. how do you deal with that? >> it is a huge muslim population. the largest muslim population in europe. france has. 4 million muslim. a vast majority are not well integrated. the education minister in france is of arab muslim origin. there is that small minority of disenfranchised and the number that is vulnerable to brainwash. you have that. one of the interesting aspe

i'm hala gorani. >> i'm john berman. we are standing on the champs elyllis.ew details of the ring leader and architect of the attacks in paris. >> it is really stunning, according to the source close to the investigation. abdelhamid abaaoud was seen, we understand on cctv footage

cnn's hala gorani talk a sister of one of the terrorists.asked cnn to disguise her voice and hide her face. >> translator: he was one of the terrorists responsible for the worst attack in france in half a century. one of three shooters at the bataclan concert hall on november 13th. his name revealed days later, sammy amimore. for the first time on international television, his sister is speaking out. >> at what point did you learn that your younger brother was one of the attackers? >> at first, i was shocked. i was screaming in despair and sadness. and when i gathered my thoughts, i thought this information was wrong, that there was a mistake, that it was impossible. >> reporter: a man who grew up to be a mass murderer, was whose life, according to his sister, started very differently. she shared personal pictures of her brother with us. >> the samy, you knew, you're saying was a nice guy? >> exactly. he was a nice person, a sensitive person. a bit shy. somebody you can rely on. a generous person. someone nice who loved to laugh and joke. >>

and cnn international anchor hala gorani. febreze, with this spiderweb effect, the bamboo effect where the shoots pop up, these actions overnight, does that mean over here in france or is it an extension of the same? >> i think it's an extension of the same. we understand now, those guys have a network in europe. and we are -- we have seen our special force, french police forces on alert today. we are seeing many policemen with weapons. looking everywhere. it looks like they are still on the edge, as a threat is still very, very present, actually. and we are sure we are much more sleeping soundly in the coming days. >> is there any reason what i'm hearing, you tell me if i'm wrong, is that they don't think the planner was in the apartments that they shot up yesterday, but they do believe that he is or was in france? >> i'm not sure about that. the target of the apartment, because they were quite sure this guy was inside, you know? and his family was inside. >> cousin. >> so, is he still in the apartment, after the identificat

she sat down with our hole hala gorani, who joins us. >> reporter: it's the first time she expressed sister of the 28-year-old, one of the three bataclan attackers who ended up blowing himself up inside the concert hall. of course, many of our viewers remember it was the site of the deadliest attack on november 13th. 89 people were murdered in cold blood there. he was a french citizen, traveled to syria. it's even believed his father traveled there to convince his son to come back with no avail. the family stayed in touch with him via messages, via skype practically the entire time he was in syria. they say he didn't -- were not apair of his plans to conduct this terrorist attack. i spoke with his sister. i asked her, when was the last time you were in touch with your brother and what was the last last considerativersation with >> reporter: in your last contact with him, was it just an ordinary conversation? >> yes. >> reporter: with absolutely no sign anything like this could happen? >> no, no sign. totally normal conversation. i asked him how he was and he told me, listen, i am ver

hala gorani, great to get your perspective. >> we've seen, as hala was saying, there is a resolve herefter what happened on friday's attacks. they did not waste any time in retaliating against isis, as promised. nearly two dozen air strikes on targets in syria. our military expert is going to tell us, they say it's a good start, but is it too little, too late? we take that up after the break. people don't have to think about where their electricity comes from. they flip the switch-- and the light comes on. it's our job to make sure that it does. using natural gas this power plant can produce enough energy for about 600,000 homes. generating electricity that's cleaner and reliable, with fewer emissions-- it matters. ♪ >>> france launching its most intense air assaults on isis targets in syria, including a command center, training base and recruiting center in raqqa. the air strikes coming as a growing number of countries are under attack by isis. here with us is a former member of the joint chiefs of staff. it's a pleasure to have you here. >> thanks, michaela. >> we need the context, t

. >> reporter: hala gorani, cnn, paris. >>> and still so much more straight ahead in the newsroom. it all starts right now. >>> hello, again, everyone. thanks so much for joining me. i'm fredricka whitfield. new details in that shooting in colorado springs, colorado. where a gunman killed three people and wounded others in a planned parenthood clinic. robert lewis dear first opened fire in the parking lot carrying an assault rifle. he caused a neighboring shopping center and hospital to go on lockdown for six hours. he surrendered to police and is now in custody. cnn's stephanie elam is live for us nearby the scene. stephanie, tell us more about this extremely delicate process of trying to extract the gunman from the hostages without anyone else getting injured. >> reporter: it was quite a scary proposition. you're talking about a situation that dragged on for six hours, fred, as they were trying to contain this man. and during that, nine people getting injured and three people losing their lives. very tense situation. so much so, you can hear it on some of the conversations betwee

i'm chris cuomo with hala gorani. stay with cnn. >>> hello, i'm jake tapper in cnn and people still on edge and warning it may not be over and police all over the world are hunting many accomplices that may still be at large. one terrorist still being investigated, investigators found his finger on the floor where he blew himself up. his name is ismael mostefai. and some of his relatives are in custody. this morning, shocking new video. this inside the concert hall as the first shocks rang out. moments later, this, victims clutching their wounds on the sidewalk outside. but we have breaking news this morning. french authorities telling cnn that at least one of these is m islamists terrorists apparently embedded himself among a group of syrian refugees in order to get into europe. i will go to paris where the investigation is rapidly unfo unfolding, cnn's chief investigative reporter christiane amanpour is breaking the story. isis warned they would use the refugee crisis to infiltrate the west. looks as if they made go

her interview with hala gorani. >> no. >> reporter: was there any sign? look, i am very well, and i have a lot of things to deal with, and i will call you very soon and he said, send kisses to everyone and my cat. >> reporter: how do you reconcile your brother who sas,s you know, i will call you soon, the little boy that you grew up with, with the man who coldly murdered dozens of helpless people in a concert hall? >> to me, there is no link. it is almost like it is not him. there's no chance. i know it is real, but -- >>> let's look more closely at who the terror suspects were in the attack. i want to bring in a former gee haw dys and also our cnn national security analyst peter bergen. and so mubin, you heard that clip that she is believing that her brother is incapable of that attack, and isn't that common that it is easy for the attack thors or the potential attackers to kind of hide their motives from the family? >> yeah, it depends upon what tip of attacker you are looking at. if i could give you a look at organized and disorganized. organized attac

i'm hala gorani. >> i'm john berman. we are following two major breaking news stories.es in russia. >> russian media regarding that an explosion brought down metro jet a-23 plane in sinai. the plane shows signs of explosives and one kilogram bomb killed all 224 people on board. the russian president is speaking today. >> the russian leader said in the carefully staged media event, they believe it was a one kilogram bomb. isis has claimed responsibility. i want to get to matthew chance in moscow following the developments. matthew, explain to me how the russian leader broke this news? >> reporter: you often get this information. especially on the state television or news. a meeting or staged briefing. this time with the president of russia putin and head of the security

our hala gorani spoke with rob wayne right, director of the law enforcement agency of the european union. listen. >> reporter: i've got to ask you here with respect, i mean, if a man like abdelhamid abaaoud can slip through in such a way, who can't in that case? if citizens in europe cannot expect their law enforcement intelligence agencies to keep track of the -- of really literally probably one of the most wanted terrorists in europe, how can they trust their agencies to do any kind of job to protect them at this stage? >> it's the number-one terrorist group now. it wasn't necessarily the case one or two week ago. there's a fragmented intelligence picture. security authorities around europe trying to deal with significant amounts of intelligence about a significance number of possible suspect. it's simply not possible to monitor all of them 100% all of the time. what we have to do is learn the lessons of this incident, double our efforts. it's important that the ministers establish a bureau at interpol. this will provide a better platform for intelligence sharing and operational cooper

hala gorani spoke to him. >> and the other thing that you said is, your son -- we are only two, my sonronger than all the armies of the world, which i thought was so beautiful. [ speaking french ] >> i don't know about daesh, et cetera. we stand free. we stand with the taste of life. we stand with happiness. we play games with my son. and then, no, we don't win. no, no, we stand. >> >> reporter: your son is only 17 months. >> yes. >> reporter: so, still he doesn't understand. >> but he hears everything. and he knows everything. we talk about it. and then he cried, but he was crying about -- because his mother -- he misses mother. so, i took my phone and put some music that he was listening with his mother, and we look at photos. he show me, this is my mother. mama, mama, mama. then he cries and we try together. we don't pretend that we're not sad or devastated. no, we are. but we stand. since friday night, life decide for me. day after day, i will see. >> the strength of people in this moment of grief, where the grief is still so raw, to be able to speak of love, to be able to speak so