Paris Attacks: Mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud Was Possible Target In Syria Airstrikes; Serbia Arrests Man With Passport Similar To Attacker's

UPDATE: 6:26 a.m. EST -- The French interior minister said Tuesday that one of the suspects in Friday's Paris attacks, Salah Abdeslam, was in Austria two months ago, according to the Standard, a German newspaper.

Local French newspaper Le Point released a video showing a hotel room in Alfortville, a suburb of southern Paris, allegedly used by the attackers and booked by Abdeslam using his credit card, two days before the attack. The video shows the room to be scattered with syringes and pizza boxes. Abdeslam allegedly booked two rooms.

Police officials are trying to determine if the syringes were used to make explosives or if they were hypodermic injections. Officials also reportedly said that they found DNA samples on the site, but the hotel and added that the hotel did not have a CCTV camera.

Original story:

Serbian police arrested a man with a Syrian passport, which had details similar to the one found near the body of one of the suicide bombers in the Paris attacks, the Guardian reported, citing police officials. Meanwhile, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal, an Islamic State group fighter, said to be the mastermind in Friday's attacks, was under surveillance and a possible target of Western airstrikes in Syria.

While the name and details of the man arrested by Serbian police matched those in the passport found at the attack site, the photograph differed, police sources told the Guardian. The passport found near the bomber at the national soccer stadium was in the name of Ahmad Almohammad, 25.

The Guardian report said that a man using the passport arrived at Reek Island of Leros on Oct. 7 and registered himself as a refugee. He reportedly travelled through Serbia and Croatia before entering France. On Saturday, Serbian authorities said that they found another man with the same details at a refugee center in Presovo. Authorities believe that both the passports are fake and suspect they were acquired by the men between Syria and Turkey. The Guardian report added that French authorities called Serbia for assistance as the country maintains a detailed register of refugees.

“There could be a possible link for transferring terrorists for Vienna and further, and we know that is the path the Paris terrorist took,” a Serbian police official said, according to the Guardian. However, the officials did not reveal if the fingerprints of the arrested man matched the attackers’.

Meanwhile, the Journal reported that Belgian citizen Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who was identified by French officials as the mastermind behind the attacks, was suspected to have escaped to Syria in January. He was reportedly under surveillance and a possible target in an operation aimed at killing ISIS fighters recruiting Western nationals.

However, officials said, according to the Journal, that they had no information Abaaoud was plotting the Paris attacks when they were targeting him, adding that they did not know if killing Abaaoud could have prevented Friday’s attacks. The officials said the plotters may have been able to act independently, with another ISIS militant replacing Abaaoud.

A Western intelligence official also said they monitored Abaaoud's communications from Syria to Europe, but were not sure if he was communicating with an ISIS operative or his brother -- a factor that reportedly made it difficult for authorities to target him in airstrikes.

After a planned attack against Belgian police was foiled in January, leading to the arrest of 15 jihadists, a group of French-speaking Belgians in Syria started hiring people to carry out attacks in public places, including a concert hall, in countries like France, Spain, the Netherlands and the U.K., a Belgian official said, according to the Journal.

So far, police officials have identified seven people, including Abaaoud and Mohammad, as being linked to the attacks -- Samy Amimour, one of the suicide bombers at Bataclan; Brahim Abdeslam, one of the attackers; Bilal Hadfi, who carried out the attack at the national soccer stadium; Ismael Mostefai, another suicide bomber at Bataclan theatre; and Salah Abdeslam, who is on the run and is said to have hired a car used by the attackers.

The attacks occurred at six location in and around Paris and have led to questions about France’s border security amid the ongoing European refugee crisis.