France tries to identify knifeman in IS-claimed attack
FRENCH anti-terrorism investigators scrambled yesterday to identify a knifeman who used multiple aliases before killing two women at the main train station in Marseille in an attack claimed by Islamic State.
Sunday’s killings in France’s secondbiggest city followed a string of stabbings around Europe claimed by, or blamed on Islamist radicals.
The identity of the attacker in Marseille, a man with a record of petty crime who was said by witnesses to have shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) at the start of his rampage, is still unknown.
Investigators said he appeared to be Tunisian but had gone by eight different names during various brushes with the law, including for shoplifting and illegal weapons possession.
The attacker’s fingerprints showed he had had seven brushes with the law since 2005 – most recently when he was arrested last week in Lyon. He presented the Tunisian passport to police, saying he was divorced, used “hard drugs”, and had no fixed address.
The shoplifting charges were dropped for lack of evidence, and local authorities “were not able to take a decision to deport him”, anti-terror prosecutor Francois Molins said.
Authorities said the man had previously used a Tunisian passport under the name Ahmed H, 29.
His victims were cousins from the eastern French city of Lyon, both aged 20. One had her throat slit by the knifeman, who was seen on video camera footage striking his first victim from behind and then fleeing – only to return to launch a frenzied attack on her cousin.
IS’s Amaq propaganda agency said he was “from the soldiers of the Islamic State”. However, investigators probing the attack have not found any link so far between the assailant and Islamic State, a source close to the case said. “The claim by IS raises questions because there’s nothing to link the assailant to Islamic State at this stage,” they said.
The attacker was shot dead by troops from the 7,000-strong Sentinelle special force deployed to patrol the streets and guard sites such as stations, tourist attractions and places of worship.
The deaths come as parliament prepared yesterday to vote on a controversial anti-terror bill that transposes some of the exceptional powers granted to the police under a 22-month-old state of emergency into national law.
Rights groups have warned that this security law reduces judicial oversight over the actions of the police.
Anti-terror prosecutors said they had opened an investigation into “killings linked to a terrorist organisation” and the “attempted killing of a public official”.