Intel agencies had hints of ISIS plot before Paris attacks, source says

Intelligence obtained by Western security agencies before the November 13 Paris attacks indicated as many as 60 ISIS fighters had been deployed by the group to Europe to carry out attacks on five cities and had already reached European soil, a senior European counterterrorism source told CNN.

The intelligence indicated the target cities included Paris, London, Berlin and a major population center in Belgium, according to the source. It also indicated Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, the head of ISIS' external operations efforts, was the key figure behind the ambitious plan, the source said. There was no indication the plan was to attack the cities simultaneously.

 The source cautioned the threat stream was based on intelligence which was fragmentary and difficult to verify, and it was too vague to act on. In addition, there was no specific intelligence prior to the Paris attack on any moving parts of the plot.

"In terms of ambition, it also just pointed towards something we already knew. ISIS had hardly made it a secret it sought to target Europe," said the senior European counterterrorism source.

In the year before the Paris attacks, Adnani had threatened the European countries supporting the anti-ISIS coalition in a series of audio messages, making specific references to France and Belgium. And in January 2015, Belgian police broke up a major ISIS plot in Belgium coordinated by Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who later became the ringleader of the Paris attacks.

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