Bomb-Sniffing Dog Killed as Police Raid Paris Suburb in Search of Attack Mastermind

A 7-year-old Malinois was killed as police in the Paris suburb of St.-Denis raided a building with apparent links to the mastermind of Friday's attacks.

A bomb-sniffing dog was killed Wednesday as part of a police raid on a building in the Paris suburb of St.-Denis, where two suspected terrorists were killed, including a woman who blew herself up with a suicide belt.

The dog was a seven-year-old malinois, or Belgian shepherd, named Diesel. Police said he was killed by terrorists.

The St. Denis siege took place over several hours. By the end, seven people were arrested.

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Witnesses in the working-class Paris suburb told CNN they heard a series of explosions explosions at around 7 a.m. local time.

Canines like Diesel are routinely used to sniff out explosives, who was the same breed as the one that accompanied the Navy SEALs who killed Osama bin Laden.

"It's a little like losing one our colleagues," the Telegraph reports one French police handler as saying.

In a Wednesday morning Facebook post, the Police Nationale applauded the work done by dogs like Diesel as "essential in the missions of the operators of the raid."

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Five police officers were lightly injured in the raid.

President Hollande said Wednesday's raid was to "neutralize terrorists" and, he said, further evidence that France is at war with ISIS.

"(ISIS) has an army, financial resources, oil resources, and occupies a territory. It has accomplices in Europe...It commits barbarous massacres," Hollande said.

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