Sick taunts of the Paris mastermind

Despite being on wanted lists, Abdelhamid Abaaoud has shuttled between Syria and Europe, exploiting the migrant crisis on EU borders.

The 27-year-old has been able to plan two atrocities and brainwash hundreds of young men to join Islamic State, including his 13-year-old brother.

And he recruited two brothers he had known since childhood to carry out Friday's murders of 129 people. Abaaoud told an IS propaganda magazine he was arrested in Europe in January preparing a mission to kill civilians and behead policemen. Incredibly, he claims he was not detained.

'My name and picture were all over the news yet I was able to stay in their homeland, plan operations against them and leave safely when doing so became necessary,' he said. His taunts emerged as:

George Osborne warned of deadly cyber-attacks on planes and hospitals;

British police revealed they were tracking 3,000 suspects and arresting them at the rate of one a day;

They said seven plots have been stopped over the past 12 months;

David Cameron likened Islamic State to the Nazis and called for the Blitz spirit;

Francois Hollande warned European border controls must be tightened.

A Belgian of Moroccan origin, Abaaoud has been named by security services in France and Belgium as the man behind the Paris attacks.

In IS propaganda videos, he styles himself as an executioner and is seen amid piles of corpses.

His earlier plot – in January in the eastern Belgian city of Verviers – was thwarted when police raided the terrorists' hideout, killing two suspects.

Abaaoud was not found and is thought to have been in Turkey or Greece directing the pair by phone.

Police found four Kalashnikovs, four handguns, ammunition and explosives during the raid as well as a police radio and uniforms.

Two days later, officials in Athens announced they had captured Abaaoud but he had given them the slip.

Describing his return to Belgium for the beheading plot, he said he and his fellow fanatics faced a number of trials but 'were able to obtain weapons and set up a safe house while we planned to carry out operations'.

He added: 'After the raid on the safe house, they figured out that I had been with the brothers and that we had been planning operations together.

'So they gathered intelligence agents from all over the world – from Europe and America – in order to detain me. I was able to leave and come to Syria despite being chased after by so many intelligence agencies. All this proves that a Muslim should not fear the bloated image of the crusader intelligence.'

The brothers he recruited – Brahim and Salah Abdeslam – took part in the cafe and restaurant attacks on Friday night.

Brahim, 31, blew himself up in the Comptoir Voltaire bar while Salah, 26, is the subject of an international manhunt. He was stopped by police on the Belgian border but not detained.

(dailymail.co.uk)