need to be taken to really increase our ability to trace these individuals once they travel abroad. this needs still to be done. one of the interesting things about this mastermind is that he was featured recently in this islamist magazine called dabiq where he was bragging. there were pictures of him. he was hardly flying under the radar. exactly. it was clearly appearing in different propaganda videos. he was interviewed by french tv. so yes, he was not hiding. he was acting in plain view and this is also part of the strategy. i mean they want to again, by this they want to raise more attractiveness to this islamic state and have more youngs coming to reach syria. one of the confounding things about what s happened here is that there s this eighth attacker who is on the loose.
we understand from the belgium prosecutor those arrests, those who were taken in during the arrests, have now been released, including the brother of one of the attackers, the so-called eighth attacker, who is part of the who is the focal point of the international man hunt, salah abdeslam. there appears to be a standoff. we have seen many of the officers withdraw. we are now seeing forensic experts go into the house that was at the center of the standoff with police. a number of controlled detonati detonations. the bomb squad was down here earlier. we understand this operation is continuing elsewhere in the city. it really reinforces how so many of the roads in the investigation to what happened in paris are leading right back here to molenbeek. this comes as cnn learns from a source in the investigation that the suspected mastermind that is believed to be a belgium national who goes and lived
the standoff continues it here, chris. a few moments ago we had what sounded lake a controlled detonation and just before we came to air, we saw explosive squad, officers fully suited, and heading towards the house that continues to be surrounded by police. we don t have a sense of who it is, who is inside that they are trying to bring out here. who it is they re looking for. we re waiting and trying to confirm reports of where exactly that eighth attacker is. all right, nima, it s about who or what they re looking for. we re hearing from intelligence official this eighth vest, they believe this eighth attacker had what the other seven had, these explosive vests. it wasn t in the car they found. it hasn t been recovered. that s the reason for caution. could be why they are using preventative explosions to get into the house. nima, thank you. france s prime minister says the paris terror plot was hatched in syria.
they should have been. these jihadis are moving to syria and moving back in. while they re aware they re going to fight in syria, there s not enough awareness when they move back into belgium or france. the investigation is ongoing. there isn t a sense yet how deep this network extends, but everything we re hearing, kate, brings the story back here to molenbeek and brussels. nima, as they look into the backgrounds of these men involved, there s also the most immediate and urgent focus right now in belgium of trying to find, locate, track down, bring in this eighth attacker. obviously, that did not happen this morning when special ops tried to get him. but do they have a sense that he s even still in belgium? do you know how far this has gone yet in trying to pin him in? reporter: what we re hearing from the prosecutor s office is they really don t have that much of a specific sense about a location or even about a search
eighth attacker. and the subject, the primary subject of this investigation and manhunt appears to be a man called salah abdeslam. he is the brother of one of the men who detonated his explosive vest inside the bataclan theater. he was actually stopped by pless and questioned a few hours after the attack driving towards the belgian border. that now very much the focus of this investigation. alisyn? clarissa, help us understand these arrests and the 104 house arrests. are these people that they believe had some sort of connection to friday, what happened here, or are these just people who were on law enforcement s radar that they now want to keep a closer eye on? i think, alisyn, at this stage, police are leaving nothing to chance. they want to try to find anybody who has had any history of affiliation with islamist groups, dangerous islamist groups, of traveling to syria and iraq. they are not leaving any leads unfollowed. it s difficult to say at this