2 Dead, 7 Arrested In Police Raid Targeting Paris Attacks Mastermind

PARIS, FRANCE - NOV. 18: Two people died and seven people were arrested Wednesday during an armed police raid in the Paris suburb of Saint Denis targeting the suspected mastermind of last week's deadly terror attacks in the French capital, local media reported. The operation took place at an apartment where the key suspect, Belgian national Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was possibly holed up, but it was not immediately clear whether he was among the nine. A French prosecutor said those killed or detained during the raid have yet to be identified. Explosions and gunfire were heard at the scene as heavily armed police surrounded the apartment to hunt down those responsible for Friday's gun and bomb attacks in Paris that killed about 130 people. A woman wearing an explosive vest blew herself up as police officers tried to storm the apartment and one man was also killed in the standoff, The Associated Press reported. The raid began before dawn and continued more than seven hours. The woman could have been a cousin of Abaaoud, according to French media.The French government approved on Wednesday a bill to extend the country's state of emergency that President Francois Hollande declared soon after the Paris attacks for three months and adopted a policy to seek constitutional revision within three months to grant more power to the president. So far, France has mobilized about 115,000 military members and police officers throughout the country to counter terrorism.