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Subscribe to RSSFrench police are demanding the surrender of Mohamed Merah, the suspect who allegedly shot seven people and then bragged of bringing France to its knees. NBC's Jim Maceda reports.
Updated at 11:01 p.m. ET: TOULOUSE, France – Three large explosions were heard late Wednesday at the siege of a suspect wanted in the killings of three Jewish children, a rabbi and three soldiers, but there were reports that the blasts were an attempt to pressure the man to surrender and did not signal the start of an assault.
Toulouse Deputy Mayor Jean-Pierre Havrin had said that negotiations with the suspect, identified as 24-year-old Mohammed Merah, had ended and an assault had begun.
But there were conflicting reports that authorities had blown open the apartment doors and windows in an attempt to pressure Merah to give up.
"They were moves to intimidate the gunman who seems to have changed his mind and does not want to surrender,'' Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet told Reuters. "There is no assault.''
Orange flashes lit up the night sky near the suspect's building as the first explosions were heard.
More than an hour later, several loud bangs were heard at the site.
Police reinforcements had arrived at the scene at around 10 p.m. and authorities switched off street lights in the street, signaling that action would begin soon.
The suspect wounded three police officers when the standoff began at 3 a.m. Wednesday.
Interior Minister Claude Gueant said earlier that Merah had told police that he would surrender after dark. Gueant said Merah appeared to have acted alone in the killings -- but also claimed to authorities that he met al-Qaida "chiefs" while traveling in Pakistan last year.
Merah, under siege by hundreds of police officers, claimed to be a member of al-Qaida and that he had shot dead the four out of "revenge for Palestinian children." He is also suspected by authorities of having killed three French soldiers of North African origin last week.
French prosecutor Francois Molins said Merah, a Frenchman of Algerian descent, told police he had been to Afghanistan twice and had trained in the militant stronghold of Waziristan.
Molins also said Merah had planned to kill another soldier and two police officials imminently, and that his brother had been implicated in a network sending fighters to Iraq.
Police sources earlier told Reuters that another man had been arrested earlier Wednesday at a separate location in connection with the case.
Several hours after the initial raid, which took at about 3 a.m. local time Wednesday (10 p.m. ET Tuesday), the alleged gunman threw a pistol out the window in exchange for a "communication device." However, he was believed to have other weapons including an AK-47 assault rifle.
The suspect said he would surrender in the late evening "to be more discreet," although he had earlier promised to give himself up during the afternoon.
"He claims to be a mujahedeen and to belong to al-Qaida," Gueant told journalists in Toulouse. "He wanted revenge for the Palestinian children and he also wanted to attack the French army because of its foreign intervention."
Remy De La Mauvinere / AP
Police and firefighters stand near the building where a suspect in the shootings at a Jewish school in Toulouse, France, was believed to be holed-up.
France 24 reported that Merah had been tracked by French intelligence services for several years.
An earlier Reuters report that Merah escaped in 2008 from Kandahar prison, where he had been serving a three-year sentence, was retracted by the news agency. Kandahar governor's office said that account was "baseless", citing judicial records. "Security forces in Kandahar have never detained a French citizen named Mohammad Merah," the governor's spokesman, Ahmad Jawed Faisal, said.
Citing prison documents, Kandahar prison chief Ghulam Faruq had told Reuters that Afghan security forces detained Merah on December 19, 2007, and that he was sentenced to three years in jail for planting bombs in the southern province of Kandahar, the Taliban's birthplace.
'God is testing us'
As the siege continued, the Haaretz newspaper reported that thousands of people had gathered at the Har HaMenuchotcemetery in Jerusalem Wednesday for a joint funeral service for the victims, Rabbi Jonathan Sandler and his two sons, Gabriel, aged six, and Arieh, three, and Miriam Monsonego, aged eight.
"Our hearts are with the Jews of France and with the Ozar Hatorah institutions that took such a hard and painful blow. The pain is unimaginable, God is testing us," Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai said in his eulogy, according to the paper.
PhotoBlog: Funeral for school shooting victims held in Israel
President Nicolas Sarkozy, campaigning for re-election in a presidential poll in five weeks time, has blamed racism for Monday's school attack. His handling of the crisis could be a decisive factor in determining how the French people vote. France has troops in Afghanistan as part of NATO forces.
"Terrorism will not divide France," Sarkozy said. "We should not give way to discrimination or vengeance after shootings."
Gueant did not say how authorities had tracked Merah down.
However, a Le Figaro correspondent at the site of raid reported that police received key tip from a local motorcycle shop in Toulouse a few days ago, according to NBC News. A salesperson said a man came into the shop to ask how to neutralize the GPS system on his TMX scooter. The salesperson thought this was suspicious and reported incident to police, giving a description of the suspect.
Gueant said that when police arrived to raid the house "the wanted individual shot at the door." NBC News reported the officers were members of an elite team known as RAID.
All French shooting victims shot in the head at close range, prosecutor says
One officer was injured in the knee and another officer lightly injured in ensuing exchanges of gunfire, Gueant said. A third officer was later reported to have been hurt.
Heavily armed police in bullet-proof vests and helmets cordoned off the area where the raid was taking place, in a suburb only about 2 miles from the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school where Monday's shootings took place. NBC News reported that 300 officers were participating in the operation.
Suspect's mother called in
Merah's mother, elder brother and two sisters were detained by police on Tuesday and negotiators sought their help in trying to persuade him to turn himself in to the authorities.
"His mother said she did not wish to speak to him because she did not believe she could convince him and he would be deaf to her appeals," Gueant said.
The suspect inside the house said that he trained in the Pakistan and Afghanistan and is affiliated with Forca lesa, an Islamic group dismantled by the French government. The group, which recruits young French to join the jihad, is considered to be dangerous.
On Tuesday, hundreds of police officers had spread out across southern France in the hunt for the gunman suspected in three deadly attacks.
Authorities suspect the school killer was also behind two recent attacks in the same area on French paratroopers that left three soldiers dead and one seriously wounded. The victims were of North African and French Caribbean backgrounds.
A tense standoff unfolds in Toulouse, France, between police and the man suspected in a string of deadly shootings, including one at a Jewish school that killed three children and a rabbi.
Sarkozy described the killer as a "monster."
"There are beings who have no respect for life. When you grab a little girl to put a bullet in her head, without leaving her any chance, you are a monster. An anti-Semitic monster, but first of all a monster," he said.
Monday's incident was the deadliest school shooting in the country and the bloodiest attack on Jewish targets in decades. Schools across the country held a moment of silence Tuesday to honor the victims, who were heading to Israel for burial.
Gueant described the suspect as "someone very cold, very determined, very much a master of his movements, and by consequence, very cruel."
NBC News, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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glad they caught him
It is a shame to see how people jump in conclusion so fast in condemning one another or shunning a religion and its followers by merely actions of an ignorant and a coward. So should we dis or blame Christianity and Judaism or other religions for crimes committed against others by some alike cowards in different parts of the world too? A criminal is a person who commits a crime punishable by the maximum allowed sentence according to a land's laws. No religious affiliation should follow his or her name. For no True religion condones any acts of violence against a fellow human or even a living being.
Having said that, It is also a shame to have some dirt bags claiming religious or ideological affiliations. Al qaeda was never a part of any religion or any respectful known ideology, let alone Islam. Al qaeda douch bags are nothing but bunch of illiterate, evil minded arrogant, ignorant, coward and imbeciles who can not see the world around, living side by side in peace and wanting peace.
Muslims alike their brothers and sisters in Christianity and Judaism, condemn this cowardice act, as The Lord of Moses, Jesus and Muhammad ( Peace be Upon Them All) curse this action and the person who committed them through His Words in His Scriptures.
Crimes against innocent, and specially Children can not and will not be dealt with, without the maximum punishment described by the law.
My deepest heart felt condolences, and prayers with the parents of these innocent children and children alike world wide. whose lives and sacred beings are violated by some evil minded dirt bags, who remind us everyday, the evil comes in many faces and under many names, therefore WE ALL SHOULD STAND SIDE BY SIDE WITHOUT EXHAUSTION, DEFENDING OUR PEACEFUL SOCIETIES, AND BROTHERHOOD/SISTERHOOD, NEVER LETTING DOWN OUR GUARDS AGAINST THE EVILS OF TIMES, AND MAKE SURE, NOT TO CONDEMN EACH OTHER FOR THE CRIMES COMMITTED BY THESE COWARDS, IMBECILES, AND DIRT BAGS. AS THE DEVIL'S WISH IS OUR WRONGFUL DISPUTE & SEPARATION IN RANKS, WHICH WOULD THEN CAUSE OUR SOCIETIES TO FALL AND WEAKENED.
May The Lord Almighty Bless Their Souls, as He places Them in Heavens above within His Mercy and Love. May God Bless Us all, as we all are in need of His forgiveness, Guidance, Mercy and GrACE>
MAY GOD BLESS YOU AND BE WITH YOU ALL FOREVER AND EVER.
I see a lot going on here...my observations from many discussions here...
1. People from North Africa vary. There are some people who are White Europeans, majority White/multiracial Arab people, and people of Black sub-Saharan African descent.
2. The issue in France is identity. French traditionalists versus Radical Muslims who may or may not have recent origins in other nations. There are second, third, and higher generation Arab and other people in France. These issues are exacerbated by limited economic opportunity.
3. In addition to the above, French have much more rigid national identities than all-embracing America, does.
4. Unlike Europe, most Africans here are legal. Like Europe, we are very hard on Africans so they jump through many hoops to get student, work, etc. visas. I spent time with many immigrants due to my job and the difference paid to African, Latino, Asian and European immigrants would astound many of you.
5. Though I am Black, it was easy to go anywhere in Europe because I am an American citizen. My Black forbears have been here since 1705 (that we can trace).
6. People complain about Latino immigrants but immigrants here from the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Asia have been making great strides/dents in niche fields but without the attention.
7. The complaints about Latinos are interesting and most people don't realize that many of the people they are complaining about are also "legal". They were born here or have the documents necessary to keep living here.
8. Islam has only recently been a "problem" to people. France has long had many immigrants of the faith. The issue isn't the people or the faith. The issue is that SOME people have chosen to "defend" their faith in the most violent and illogical of ways. It is a recent problem and has more to do with the "times" than some flaw with people of that religion.
9. This shooting is horrible. The person who did it was a nutjob. His faith or immigration status is incidental. If every mosque or immigrant was crazy, then a new battle would begin in France...not the piecemeal terror war but battles to rival those of WWI and WWII.
10. In another generation or two, people from the Middle East/North Africa won't be interested in jihad. There were few interested a few decades ago and after seeing people killed and jailed and still no converts, no country for Palestine and other non-accomplishments, will convince them of terror's futility.
You make some good points but there is also a lot of wishful thinking, in my opinion, especially in point 8).
Islam has always been a problem for Non-muslims where Islam dominates. Dr. Andrew Bostom's excellent book The Legacy of Jihad; Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims is an excellent place to learn more about the plight of Non-muslims under the control of Islam and its mechanisms of power: http://www.amazon.com/The-Legacy-Jihad-Islamic-Non-Muslims/dp/1591026024/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332322751&sr=8-1
The Jewish tribes in Arabia and pagan Arabs that lived in 8th century Arabia might disagree about Islam not being harmful. The Byzantines might disagree, as might the Syrians and Egyptians of that time, who were Christian. The Visigoth kingdoms in Spain that were conquered by the Muslims might disagree about how harmless Islam was, as well as the Greeks, the Serbs and the Sicilians.
I may not be a Christian, and I have my own problems with Christianity, particularly as it is now, but I would reflect upon the fact that at the start Christianity was mostly a pacifist religion--hence the Christians refusing to serve in the Roman army and being fed to the lions.
Islam has been primarily a warlike religion, from the very beginning, expanding primarily by the sword, except in a few places like Indonesia, where it was spread by merchants. Calling Islam a religion of peace, given its bloody beginnings, is a sick joke.
I'd even posit that Christian countries became more imperialistic as a consequence of being repeatedly assaulted by Islam, in the Iberian peninsula, in the Balkans and in Italy. Neitzche said if you fight dragons long enough, you become a dragon. Think 700 years of attacks by Muslims was long enough for Christians?
Excellent post, pagan. Thanks.
Pagan,
Was it Nietzche that said,"the man in the streeet cannot rcognize the Devil evan when the Devil has him by the throat,"?
No matter who came up with it it's a a fair statement to be sure.
I think the comon Muslims are also victim of these terrerists. The comon Muslims dont have to do anything with them. I dont think if these terrorists should be called even Muslims as they violate Islamic rules. Islam does not allow any body to kill the innocents of any religion or color. No body can take the role of the courts. May be terrorists claim or known as Muslims but it does not mean all the Muslims are terrorist. The comon Muslims are being hurt from either side, they get killed by terrorist as the result of suiside attacks from the terrorists and they have to face the anger and hate of the other peopple and victims of the terrorism. May be western media does not show those news of suiside attacks of the these terrorists in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq which killed countless people who were just regular Muslim people and they did not have to do anything with the world politics.
Use the same rules on this f'er. Just shoot him. End of issue.
I want to say this action of terrorism in France was condemnable and horrorable. I being a Muslim feel sorrow and sympathy for those innocent victims. I felt the same pain for them as I would for any other person. Sympathy and pray for the victims.
funny, this outrage received world - wide, breaking news status while it was believed it's perp. were right wing and white. watch how quickly this story loses it's legs when the world press realises this is just another mass murder commited by oppressed followers of islam. in fact some of the more extreme commentators will undoubtedly not completely condone this barbarity, but perhaps sympathize with the "impotent rage" these poor victims of western and israeli oppression must have felt.
How many of his friends and neighbors knew he was up to something ( you kinda notice a guy on a scooter carrying a gun ) and didn't report it until this business man thought the guys' request to turn off the scooters GPS was suspicious?
For all those that have gotten away from the subject....Get back to the main story and remember there are children lost all over the world by....war, hunger and stupid people.
I pray for the children of our world. We are all inner connected so it is up to all of us to protect our children and keep them safe and out of harms way. For those of you who want to change the subject....move on from here. Praying for those lost and all the children of our world.
I hope they cancel his welfare benefits, I wish sharia law forbade receiving welfare
Sharia law is a stupid, intolerant, meaningless collection of irrational "laws" that morons like this loser claim to support, but only follow if it suits them at the moment. It is more of a law that is imposed on others, so that it can provide the "believers" with an excuse to murder them for not following it. Anyone who believes sharia "law" is superior to constitutional law is a drooling idiot, and should be immediately expelled from the country they are in, preferably to any one of the benighted hellholes where sharia law is ostensibly followed. The only thing I wish sharia law forbade was for its followers to reproduce. They wouldn't follow that, either, but it's a wish. And it would solve the problem.
While this NBC article has no problem describing the victims as "Jewish".....it seems to have a very difficult time describing the gunman as Muslim....in fact the word is never used.
Radical Moslems are waging wars of aggression on many fronts for world domination and to end all religions other than their perverted version of Islam. They will murder every man, woman and child they can get their hands on to frighten the rest of the population into submission. They will kill every Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Confuscist, Jew, Atheist and even non-radical Moslem. The decent people of the world must defeat radical Islam before it destroys civilzation. Our future depends on stopping Moslem extremists before they kill and enslave us. Today was a good start.
The killer is a Palestinian or a Palistinian sympathizer. Is it surprising?
It was the Palestinians who kipnapped and killed the entire Israeli Olympic team more than three decades ago.
It was the Palestinians who hijacked planes and a ship, isolating the Jewish passengers for execution. On the hijacked cruise ship, the Palestinians pushed over-board an elderly Jewish man in his 60s confined to a wheelchair. It was a Palestinian SirhanSirhan who assassinated Robert Kennedy. There were nearly one dozen of Palestinians on board the suicide planes of 911. It was the Palestinians who cheered when Saddam invaded Kuwait and sided with Saddam in Gulf War I and II.
It is the Palestinians who, today, continue to attack Israel with rockets, commandos, and suicide missions.
This is what Israel receive by giving the Gaza to the Palestinians in exchange for peace.
Regardless of the perpetrators religion, he is a cruel and heartless individual. If only France had a death penalty. There are some people who really do deserve it.
Hellooooooooo It's the Islam stooo pid !
This has nothing to do with social or economics. It is written in the Koran to kill non muslims and most of the Imams are teaching this in their sermons. Wake up people.
Another nut case dead. Religion, the worst reason to kill. To bad they don't keep their believes and killings in the Middle East. I am sure the French are not going to take this lightly.
He killed them for all the Palestine children that have been killed. Did I miss something or was there a mass killing of children in Palestine recently or is this another one of those thousand year old bullshi*t revenge killings?
still not ONE article, or effort from a Muslim showing outrage and demanding this stop. Not one. BUT there is plenty of outrage and anger from the left demanding we stop picking on the Muslims. Weird. Really weird. They kill, then they say nothing, while we all argue about it. I guess maybe they are planning their next murder/attack/terrorist plot.
As I said in my previous post, regardless of the perpetrators religion, he is a cruel and heartless individual. If only France had a death penalty. There are some people who really do deserve it.
By the way, I am Muslim and the Qur'an does NOT say to commit murder, which is what this guy did plain and simple. Muslim organizations DO comdemn crimes like this one. The problem is that no one pays attention. It's so much easier to say that all Muslims are terrorists, and all that.
Rest in the Peace of God..
whenever searching dead muslim fighters (US Army Iraq) we always knew if they were from Europe because we would always find a koran and welfare documentation
Horrific.
Why are the police wearing ski masks? How strange. An item normally associated with a robber.
Children killed and all you pathetic low-life's can do is join in a prejudiced rant. I'd say that moronic murderer just fulfilled his agenda getting morons like you to blame everyone else but him.
This below is from another article on Yahoo. I find it interesting as a quote from a French citizen. I guess its the same everywhere, The socialists don't like discussing this stuff, and they don't know what they are doing....
Jean Marc, a 56-year-old restaurant owner in the city who declined to give his last name, said he believed the crisis would benefit the far right or Sarkozy in the election. "The Socialists don't talk about this stuff and it shows they don't know what they are doing," he said. "
Couldnt agree more Jean Marc, couldnt agree more.....
Interesting how initial reports yesterday were about a neo-Nazi connection.
A deranged killer kills innocent children. Ooops, wrong message board. I thought this was about an American in Afghanistan.
Well, suffice it to say that deranged Americans are not the only ones capable of committing such crimes.
An Islamist, NOT a neo-Nazi! I knew it!
The French need to read "The Camp of the Saints" by Raspail (a Frenchman). Good book about why it is bad to let yourself get colonized by foreigners.
I guess French guilt over Algeria has led them to commit collective suicide by importing people from there. (And I thought that importing toxic Chinese toys and food was harmful! At least a lead toy doesn't pull out a gun and shoot your children)