A shoot out left some dead and some in custody:

For the second time in a week, gunfire and explosions ripped through France on Wednesday — this time in an hours-long ordeal that ended with at least two terror suspects dead, seven detained, new attacks potentially thwarted and further proof, according to French President Francois Hollande, that his country is “at war” with ISIS.

Authorities zeroed in on a building in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis after picking up phone conversations indicating that a relative of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected ringleader of last week’s bloody attacks, might be there, a Belgian counterterrorism official said. French police also believed Abaaoud himself was then still in the country, though they didn’t know exactly where.

By late Wednesday, the new question was whether or not he is even alive. Investigators are using DNA to analyze the body parts found in the Saint-Denis building where a female suspect first blew herself up and then French forces used powerful munitions to combat others, which led to one floor of the building collapsing.

That’s good news, but it’s a drop in the bucket. I wonder whether the information that the terrorists were traced through “picking up phone conversations” is a good thing to disclose—or whether it’s even true, or a false lead meant to throw terrorists off the trail. I would prefer the latter in this case; I don’t think terrorists need to know any more about what leads authorities to their whereabouts.

Then there are the emergency powers (potentially dangerous to liberty and vulnerable to abuse, but probably necessary at this point) that I’ve written about before:

Hollande said that Wednesday evening he would present legislation to extend France’s state of emergency for three more months — a measure that, among other things, gives authorities greater powers in conducting searches, holding people and dissolving certain groups.

Someone in the neighborhood where the firefight occurred had this to say:

“When you think of Saint-Denis, you don’t think of terrorists,” he told CNN. “I’m shocked! Why would the terrorists pick this neighborhood?”

I think he may have answered his own question. When you’re hiding, best to hide where you’re not expected to be found.