French President François Hollande's security adviser has warned that the death of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the alleged organiser of the attacks in Paris, could only delay plans for more terror attacks.
Alain Bauer told NBC News in an interview that the Islamic State (ISIS) will not stop at the death of Abaaoud, 27, who was killed in a raid in Saint-Denis early Wednesday.
"The [ISIS] caliphate will need some time to find ... not other people ready to die, or other terrorist ready to act, but a supervisor is much more complicated than a jihadi or a shahid, which is a name for martyrs," Bauer said.
"We think we are just in the middle of the storm,'' he added, according to NBC News.
The Nov. 13 Paris attacks left 130 people dead and more than 300 injured. The incident prompted several countries in Europe to step up efforts to prevent the same from happening.
Bauer said the French police earlier tried to kill Abaaoud in an airstrike in Raqqa, Syria, on Oct. 8, more than a month before the attacks in Paris.
"Military intelligence knew perfectly that he was preparing something huge and extremely dangerous," he said.
The Belgian jihadi has reportedly boasted of being able to evade Western intelligence. He has been linked to at least four of six foiled attacks this year, France said.
French officials also believe Abaaoud was in France soon after the Paris attacks because in previous plots he was close to the scene — and he may have been planning a further attack, said the report.
"He is a player that wants to see it (the outcome of his plotting)," Bauer said.
To date, French police are still searching for others who may have been involved in the attacks. A manhunt has been launched against another suspect accomplice/driver Salah Abdeslam, 26.
Accordimg to news reports, the attackers in Paris used suicide belts and vests to blow themselves up.
The explosive devices found by police also contained TATP (triacetone triperoxide), which can be made using household goods like hair dye.
An analyst told a U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee Thursday that the use of TATP, which is very volatile, suggests someone with "real training" in making bombs.
It also suggests that a bomb factory still remains undiscovered in France and that a relatively skilled bomb maker is involved.
"Putting together such bombs requires some kind of dedicated space and a skilled maker," he said
In a written testimony, Peter Bergen, director of nonpartisan think tank New America Foundation's international security and future of war programmes, said TATP was used by the so-called "shoe bomber" Richard Reid, who unsuccessfully tried to detonate explosives on a jet in 2001.
Traces of the explosive were also found in detonators used in bombs during a planned attack on London's public transportation system in 2005, The Associated Press reported at the time.
