The suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks Abdelhamid Abaaoud evaded cops in Greece following a failed operation to capture him months before the terror atrocity .

The operation, in Athens in January - before the attacks in Paris - came after it was allegedly discovered that Abaaoud had been directing a terror cell in Belgium from Greece.

The BBC reports that a Belgian anti-terror source said the plan was to target Abaaoud before anti-terrorism raids in Belgium but that this did not happen.

Abaaoud was killed in a gun battle with cops five days after the 13 November Paris attacks that killed 130 people in the French capital.

Youth: Abdelhamid Abaaoud, as a 12-year-old schoolboy (
Image:
La Dernière Heure /Les sports)

The failed operation in Greece was reportedly meant to have taken place before the one carried out by security forces in the town of Verviers, eastern Belgium, on 15 January.

Two suspected jihadis died in that gun battle.

READ MORE: Paris terror attack suspect Salah Abdeslam has 'fled to Syria'

Cops in Greece carried out their own raids two days later, on January 17 - following reports in Belgium that Abaaoud was being hunted.

Two flats in Athens were raided by Greek police, the BBC reports - with one Algerian man extradited to Belgium - although Abaaoud was not located.

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