The terror group that carried out the 2015 Paris attacks had originally planned for additional violence in the Netherlands and other areas of France, documents show.
A CNN investigation sheds more light on the tactics used by the Islamic State’s branch that plans foreign strikes and was responsible for the Paris attack that killed at least 130 people and wounded hundreds more.
The group had planned to follow up the Paris attack with strikes in several locations, including the United Kingdom. A senior counterterrorism official told CNN that security officials are uncovering more Islamic State operatives in Europe.
The documents also shed more light on two captured terrorists believed to have plotted to attack France: Algerian-born Adel Haddadi and his Pakistani travel partner, Muhammad Usman. The papers show how the Islamic State supported them as they traveled from Syria through Europe, six weeks before the Paris attacks.
They also name for the first time another suspected terrorist, Abid Tabaouni, who is thought to be linked to the Paris terror cell.
CNN said a team of reporters spent months going through 90,000 pages of documents that included interrogations, investigative findings and data pulled from cell phones. Altogether, the findings shed more light on the wing of the Islamic State known as Amn al-Kharji, a highly organized group focused on attacking overseas targets.
