Even Abdelhamid Abaaoud’s own family prayed for his death, and today they got their wish when the Belgian jihadist behind the Paris attacks was confirmed killed in a French police raid.
Abaaoud was a one-time school bully and petty criminal from the Brussels immigrant district of Molenbeek who graduated to become a leading Islamic State militant with ties to a series of plots in Europe. The 28-year-old of Moroccan origin had recently boasted of evading police dragnets in Europe, and taunted European authorities from what was assumed to be an IS base in Syria.
The effect on his family was profound, with his sister Yasmina telling Flemish newspapers last year that “we can only pray that he is really dead” after it was - mistakenly - reported that he was killed in Syria.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls hailed the death of the “mastermind” of last week’s atrocities, after prosecutors said Abaaoud body had been identified following yesterday’s raid in Saint Denis.
His female cousin was reported to have blown herself up.
In the past, Abbaoud liked to taunt the police, boasting of a close call he had when he passed through a European checkpoint as police studied a photo of him.