been told they think this is not some completely different operation. some completely different cell. it s all a part of the same big potential plot. similar weaponry. similar explosives. all a part of the same. there have been hundreds of raids every night in france since friday. this morning we have been told quite clearly this was was different. this was launched to target abdelhamid abaaoud. was he there. we don t know. in addition to the possibility of other attackers, there would have to be a support network to allow a magnitude of this scale and expanse to take place here, which is another thing driving those raids. just another point to ba you were saying earlier, chris. one sort of sad irony of this is within have you an atact and you investigate that often reveals other leads. it leads you in other places, so there is, i hate to use the word benefit, right, you ve had an attack here, it is option. they have i.d.s of some attackers, cell phones.
officers have been hurt. this part of an ongoing reporting just in the nick of time to stop another wave of attacks here in and around paris. now, in our paris bureau. we have paul cruickshank, a security expert. you see what we are seeing. help us understand the context of how we got to this point and what is ongoing. well, chris, i mean, they are warring moments, all indications are there could be two attack teams here launching that awful terrorist attack on paris on friday. eight attackers, maybe nine involved in that and eight people either killed or arrested in this overnight raid in sontene with one woman who strapped on an explosive vest, who blew herself up. there are other heavy weapons which appear to be involved. of course, we are now being told that the police felt they got
tim time. age in the space of 48 hours, we have gone from seven terrorists or eight terrorists to close to 15, 16. the number is climbing in terms of suspected terrorists. and my french sources in the government in the senate here, that i are trying to nail down whether this matches a report and a warning they got from iraqi intelligence on thursday, the day before the friday the 13th attack, which said the 19 people who they had had under under surveillance in some form or fax for a period of time went dark. and that there was possibly a threat to france. we are still trying to nail that down. but these numbers now match more closely to this warning from iraq. so that s how we got to where we are right now. we are still in the middle of an active situation. we have atika. what are you seeing there now? reporter: yes. in fact, i m just now seeing
we have a full team covering these developments in paris. we will get back to you both shortly. our chief international correspondent christiane amanpour is with us with more on what we have been witnessing overnight. we were speaking with the deputy editor in one of his top police sources said this could have been a new team prepareing a new attack. this is one of the possibilities that of course investigators will be looking at. exactly. it was dramatic when we went through the dark raid that was going on in sontene, helicopters over this building. they obviously founded. we re trying to physical out who was inside. all those gunshots, all those explosions. i guess the most dramatic notion was twofold. one, were they about to close in on abdelhamid abaaoud, who is the mastermind of this operation just to recap, he s a 27-year-old belgium. he s been a long time in syria. known to be in the rights of
don t send them to school, all public transport has been suspended. metro closed. schools closed as well. we were talking to a french reporter who police sources said to him they got there. they got there at this raid, just from time, just in time. the police did not make clear exactly what this meant. was this just before another attack was about to take place? these are live images coming to us from sontene. police have set up a tent, possibly forensic work, possibly gathering information, possibly talking to witnesses there. but shielding as well some of the area from the view and the camera lenss of journalists. since one of the suspected terrorists, a woman did blow herself up. there is concern the apartment they were in could be booby trapped. they are being careful with the possibility of more explosives there. atika shubert has been there