Knife-wielding man attacks French troops

PARIS— A former criminal who had been blocked by French and Turkish police from travelling along a route used by jihadi fighters on Tuesday allegedly attacked three French soldiers with a knife outside a Jewish community centre in southern France, officials said.

France’s counterterrorism agency last week flagged the suspect, Moussa Coulibaly, to Turkish authorities before he flew on Jan. 28 on a oneway ticket to Turkey, a transit point for jihadis from Europe to join Islamic extremist groups fighting in Syria and Iraq, one French security official said.

Coulibaly and a suspected accomplice were detained after the attack on the soldiers, who were conducting an anti-terrorism patrol in front of a Jewish community centre in Nice as part of stepped-up security measures since a three-day spree of deadly terror attacks in and around Paris last month.

The incident pointed to improved co-ordination between French and Turkish authorities in combatting the movement of would-be jihadis, while also raising the spectre that those who don’t make it to Iraq and Syria might try to wreak violence at home.

After his return home, French authorities were unable to turn up enough evidence against Coulibaly to open a legal case against him. Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre, a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor’s office, which handles terrorism cases, said Coulibaly had been convicted six times on charges including theft, violence, illegal drug use and insulting police — but not terrorism.

The security official said Coulibaly had committed those crimes in Mulhouse between 2006 and 2009.