Reuters, Paris :
France is facing a very high threat from terrorism, President Francois Hollande said on Tuesday after a knifeman killed a police commander and his partner at their home near Paris.
Describing the murders as “undeniably a terrorist act”, Hollande said: “France is confronted by an extremely high terrorist threat.” Hollande said the 42-year-old policeman and his partner, who were attacked at their home northwest of Paris overnight, were “murdered in cowardly fashion.”
“It’s unquestionably a terrorist act,” Hollande said, stressing that France, which is currently hosting the Euro 2016 football championships was still “facing a very significant terrorist threat.” Sources close to the investigation identified the suspect, who was killed in a police raid, as Larossi Abballa and said he was convicted in 2013 over his role in an ISIS group with links to Pakistan.
The sources later confirmed that the 25-year-old assailant was also part of a more recent investigation into a network recruiting ISIS jihadists for the fight in Syria.
During failed negotiations with police that ended with elite RAID officers storming the house, the attacker claimed he was also acting on behalf of IS.
He repeatedly stabbed the policeman and then killed his partner, who was found with knife wounds to her neck. The couple’s three-year-old son was found after the police operation, “in shock but unharmed,” a prosecutor added.
France is facing a very high threat from terrorism, President Francois Hollande said on Tuesday after a knifeman killed a police commander and his partner at their home near Paris.
Describing the murders as “undeniably a terrorist act”, Hollande said: “France is confronted by an extremely high terrorist threat.” Hollande said the 42-year-old policeman and his partner, who were attacked at their home northwest of Paris overnight, were “murdered in cowardly fashion.”
“It’s unquestionably a terrorist act,” Hollande said, stressing that France, which is currently hosting the Euro 2016 football championships was still “facing a very significant terrorist threat.” Sources close to the investigation identified the suspect, who was killed in a police raid, as Larossi Abballa and said he was convicted in 2013 over his role in an ISIS group with links to Pakistan.
The sources later confirmed that the 25-year-old assailant was also part of a more recent investigation into a network recruiting ISIS jihadists for the fight in Syria.
During failed negotiations with police that ended with elite RAID officers storming the house, the attacker claimed he was also acting on behalf of IS.
He repeatedly stabbed the policeman and then killed his partner, who was found with knife wounds to her neck. The couple’s three-year-old son was found after the police operation, “in shock but unharmed,” a prosecutor added.
