Moroccan Extradited to France over 2015 Train Attack

A Moroccan man suspected of helping to plan a 2015 attack on a Paris-bound train has been extradited from Germany to France and charged, a legal source said Friday.

Redouane Sebbar, 25, was a close associate of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the ringleader of the 2015 jihadist attacks in Paris that claimed 130 lives.

Abaaoud, who died in a police raid days after the carnage in the French capital, is also believed to have ordered the attack on the high-speed Thalys train from Amsterdam to Paris on August 21, 2015.

The pair made several European trips together.

The legal source said Sebbar, who had been in custody in Germany since late 2016, was extradited to France on October 26 and charged with "complicity in attempted terrorist murder".

His fellow Moroccan Ayoub El Khazzani, a member of the Islamic State group returning from Syria, opened fire with a Kalashnikov on the Thalys train just after it entered France, wounding two people.

Three Americans holidaying in Europe -- two of them off-duty servicemen -- overpowered him, saving passengers from what could have been a bloodbath.

Khazzani told investigators he was acting on the orders of Abaaoud, whom he met in Syria.

French investigators became interested in Sebbar after noticing he made a return Thalys trip from Brussels to Paris a few days before Khazzani's attack.

France had been seeking Sebbar's extradition since July.

Another suspected accomplice of Khazzani's, who was arrested in Germany and handed over to France in April, has already been charged over the Thalys attack.

Algerian national Bilal Chatra, 21, is accused of playing the role of scout for Abaaoud and Khazzani along the Balkans migrant route into Europe in 2015. He is being held in a French prison.

In Belgium, two men were charged Tuesday over the train attack, including Mohamed Bakkali, accused of planning logistics for the gun and bomb assault in Paris on November 13, 2015.