Paris attacker faces fast-track extradition to France

UPDATE: A Brussels hospital released Salah Abdeslam, who was shot in the leg during his arrest, to authorities. The top suspect in last year’s Paris terror attacks now faces questioning from Belgian officials and a fast-track effort to extradite him to France.

French President François Hollande warned that more arrests will come as authorities attempt to dismantle a network of Islamic State terrorists involved in the attacks that is much larger than originally suspected.

Meanwhile, according to documents given to The Associated Press by the Syrian opposition news site Zaman al-Wasl, the Algerian gunman now linked to the Paris attacks and killed by Belgian police on Tuesday joined Islamic State in 2014 and wanted to die as a suicide bomber.

Mohamed Belkaid, who was previously unknown to authorities, died in the raid that led to the arrest of Abdeslam.

UPDATE (March 18, 4 p.m.): Belgian officials announced today that two other terror suspects were arrested during raids in the country's capital, Brussels. The government has confirmed the first person arrested was Salah Abdeslam, who was wanted for his role in the Nov. 13 Paris terror attack. The other two men have not been identified.

OUR EARLIER REPORT (March 18, 2:15 p.m.): Police in Belgium captured one of the men responsible for the November terror attack in Paris during a raid today on an apartment in the Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek.

Salah Abdeslam, a Belgian national, has been on the run for about four months. He is one of three involved in the Paris attack who escaped being killed or captured. In the days after the attack, Abdeslam slipped through a police dragnet, crossing the border from France to Belgium. Although officials quickly realized their mistake, they could find no sign of him.

But on Tuesday, police discovered Abdeslam’s fingerprints in a residence in the Forest area of Brussels. When they arrived to conduct a search, several men opened fire on them from inside the building.

Police shot and killed one of the men, 35-year-old Mohamed Belkaid, an Algerian living in Belgium illegally. But two other men escaped. Investigators now believe Abdeslam was one of them.

During today’s arrest, Abdeslam was shot in the leg. Officials have not released any other information about his condition.

In the apartment raided Tuesday, police found an Islamic State (ISIS) banner as well as 11 Kalashnikov loaders, and a large quantity of ammunition, according to a Brussels prosecutor. ISIS claimed responsibility for the Nov. 13 Paris attack, which killed 130 people at a rock concert, the national stadium, and several popular cafes.

Abdeslam was a childhood friend of suspected ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud and is thought to have driven one group of gunmen and bombers to the scene of the attack. His brother, Brahim Abdeslam, was one of the suicide bombers who died that night.

Two other suspected Paris attackers remain on the run.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.