The French government says it will mobilize police and military forces to boost security in the wake of the slaying of a Catholic priest, the latest terror atrocity to roil the country.
Tuesday’s deadly hostage-taking in St.-Etienne-du-Rouvray in northern France has raised further questions about the ability of French security services to respond to the domestic jihadist threat.
The Rev. Jacques Hamel, 86, died after two attackers, striking in the name of ISIS, stabbed him in the chest and slit his throat slit and also seriously wounded a churchgoer, officials said.
One attacker, Adel Kermiche, 19, had been flagged as a radicalized Islamist. Kermiche was under house arrest and was forced to wear an electronic monitoring tag after he traveled abroad to try to fight in Syria, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said.
Under the conditions of his house arrest, he was allowed out of his parent’s home, not far from the church, for four hours each day — a window he used to carry out the attack.
The attackers carried bladed weapons. One wore a fake explosive belt, while the other carried a kitchen timer and fake bomb, Molins said. Security forces killed them as they left the church, he said.
Kermiche was identified by his fingerprints, while the other attacker has not been named.
The priest’s killing came as France is still grappling with the Bastille Day terror attack that left 84 people dead in Nice.
French authorities have struggled to monitor thousands of domestic Islamic radicals who, like Kermiche, are on a list used to flag radicalized individuals considered a threat to national security.
Religious leaders condemn killing
French President Francois Hollande met with religious leaders Tuesday as a government spokesman vowed the republic would “respond with unity” to the ISIS threat, which has led to a state of emergency being in place since the Paris terror attacks in November.
“It is with the weapons of the republic that we will fight and protect,” government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said.
Speaking after the meeting with Hollande at the Elysee Palace, Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, expressed “deep grief” on behalf of France’s Muslims at the attack.
He said the killing of a priest — “who is respected and protected to the letter in our religion” — was “a deed outside of Islam, a deed that all Muslims of France condemn and reject in the most definitive way.”
The Vatican condemned the attack Tuesday, calling it particularly horrific since it occurred in a church, “a sacred place where the love of God is announced.”
Security measures boosted
Speaking at a press conference, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that 23,500 police and military officers — including reserves — would be mobilized to ensure the safe running of 56 public events scheduled for the rest of the summer.
The events may be called off if the government determines that security arrangements are inadequate, he said.
Cazeneuve said France’s reservist forces would be boosted. He said 2,500 people had expressed interest in joining the reserves since he called on young patriots to sign up in the wake of the Bastille Day attack in Nice.
He said that information sharing between security services needed to be improved and that the response to the threat needed to remain within the law.
“Only in this way can we win the war against terror,” he said.
Cannes Mayor David Lisnard announced the French Riviera city had passed a bylaw banning people from carrying suitcases and large luggage — that could be used to conceal bombs — on public transport or along the beachfront until the end of October.
The priest’s killing follows a string of violent attacks in France and neighboring Germany in recent weeks, some claimed by the Sunni terror group ISIS.
Hollande said Tuesday that the attackers acted in the name of ISIS, and the ISIS-linked news agency Amaq released a statement, posted by the group’s supporters, claiming the Normandy attackers were the terror outfit’s “soldiers.”
CNN cannot independently confirm the claim, and no evidence has surfaced showing ISIS had been in direct contact with the attackers.
Attacker was known radical
According to a French intelligence source, Kermiche tried to enter Syria twice after becoming radicalized following the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris. The attacker was associated with Maxime Hauchard, a French jihadi who appeared in an ISIS beheading video in 2014, the source said.
Molins said Kermiche attempted to leave the country twice for Syria in 2015.
He was placed under “judicial control” in March 2015 after trying to use his brother’s identification to go to Syria. Two months later he left the country for Syria using a cousin’s identification card.
Authorities in Turkey stopped Kermiche and deported him to France via Switzerland, from where he had entered Turkey.
He was detained until March 18 when he was released under house arrest with an electronic monitoring tag. An appeals court upheld the terms of his release, which required him to live with his family under house arrest and sign in once a week at a local police station.
