Who Is Salah Abdeslam? Wanted Belgian Man Directly Involved In Paris Attacks, French Police Say

The French National Police issued an arrest warrant Sunday for Salah Abdeslam, a Belgian-born French national wanted in connection with the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris Friday. Salah was allegedly directly involved in the attacks and is currently on the run. He is described by authorities as 26 years old, 5 feet 7 inches tall and “dangerous.”

According to a translation of an alert posted on Twitter, the French National Police said, “This individual is dangerous, do not interact with him.”

Salah allegedly helped with logistics and rented one of the cars used in the attacks, among other things. His brother, Ibrahim Abdeslam, was purportedly one of the suicide bombers. Both lived in Belgium for years, a senior European intelligence official told the Washington Post. Another brother, who has not yet been named, may be among seven people taken in for questioning by French police in the Molenbeek-Saint-Jean district of Brussels Saturday.

Investigators are still searching for at least one other participant in the assaults that killed at least 129 people and wounded hundreds more at six sites in and around Paris. The Islamic State group, formerly known as either ISIL or ISIS, has claimed responsibility for the attacks. The militant group and French authorities both initially claimed the carefully coordinated attacks were carried out by eight men. Police said seven attackers died, one by being shot by police and six by detonating their suicide vests, according to the Guardian in the U.K.

After meeting in Paris with his Belgian counterpart, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the assailants had “prepared abroad and had mobilized a team of participants located on Belgian territory, and who may have benefited -- the investigation will tell us more -- from complicity in France,” the New York Times reported. One attacker, whose nationality is publicly unknown, apparently posed as a Syrian migrant. At least three attackers were French citizens and two were living in the Brussels area, according to Belgian authorities.

Belgian Home-Affairs Minister Jan Jambon said Islamic State group agents are employing Sony’s PlayStation 4 to communicate with each other and spell out attack plans. It remains unclear whether the militants involved in the attacks Friday actually used PS4, but the popular gaming console has proven to be an effective avenue of covert communication that’s notoriously difficult to monitor.