BRUSSELS (AP) – Belgian authorities say a man shot dead earlier this week as he prepared to fire on police "most probably" was an accomplice of fugitive Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam.
The slain man was identified as an Algerian national, Mohamed Belkaid, 35. Federal prosecutors said Friday he is now believed to have been one of the two men seen with Abdeslam in a rental car on the Hungarian-Austrian border in September.
At the time, Belkaid is thought to have been using a fake Belgian identity card carrying the name Samir Bouzid.
Four days after the Nov. 13 Paris attacks, the same false ID card was used to transfer 750 euros ($847) to Hasna Ait Boulahcen, niece of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the man believed to have been the ringleader of the Paris attacks. Both Ait Boulahcen and Abaaoud died afterward in a police siege.
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