Paris knife attacker was Chechnya-born French citizen and on police watchlist

PARIS — The Paris knife attacker who was shot dead by police on Saturday was a French citizen born in Chechnya and was on a list of potential terrorism suspects, local media reported on Sunday.

The assailant had shouted “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest) as he began his stabbing rampage late on Saturday. He fatally knifed a 29-year-old man and wounded four others, among them a Chinese and a Luxembourg citizen, before police shot him dead.

Citing judicial sources, the BFM TV news channel said that the attacker was born in 1997 in Chechnya and had no criminal record, but was on the police watchlist for links with a person in Syria.

A judicial source that appeared in various reports identified the attacker as Khamzat A, without giving his full name, but BFM TV and other French media said that the A stood for Azimov.

The attack took place in the bustling Opera district, known for its many restaurants, cafes and the Palais Garnier opera.

It was the latest in a succession of attacks in France since January 2015 in which more than 240 people have been killed.

Since 2016 the attacker had been on a counter-terrorism watchlist of suspected radicals who may be a threat to national security, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said.

The stabbing again exposed the difficulty European intelligence services face in keeping track of suspected extremists and countering the threat posed by homegrown militants and foreign jihadists.

France has participated in a US-led coalition battling Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and it also intervened in Mali to push back an Islamist rebellion in the West African state.

Its military interventions overseas have exposed it to attacks by Islamist militants at home.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack, but provided no proof. Griveaux said the claim had not yet been fully authenticated.

The assailant became French when his mother obtained citizenship in 2010, Griveaux said in a joint interview with broadcasters LCI and RTL and newspaper Le Figaro.

The attacker’s parents and a friend were held by the police for questioning after the incident.

The friend, who was arrested in the French city of Strasbourg, is reportedly of the same age as the attacker.

“France pays once again the price of blood but does not give an inch to the enemies of freedom,” French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted on Saturday night, praising police officers for “neutralizing the terrorist”.

France has become a major target of terrorist attacks in recent years. Several attacks claimed by the Islamic State state have rattled nerves in France and beyond, with the bloodiest one in Paris in November 2015 leaving 130 dead.

If the head of state accepts the nomination, then the position could be filled within days.

Matteo Salvini, head of the League, said in a statement over the weekend that he and Di Maio were “writing history”.

Both political parties have vowed to take tough positions with Brussels on issues like EU fiscal rules amid widespread Italian discontent over the country’s economic malaise and a lack of European solidarity on dealing with migration.

According to Italian media reports, the nominee for prime minister will be from a “third party” and will have to be able to make the euroskeptic nature of the new government workable with Brussels.

Salvini and Di Maio were scheduled to meet in Rome on Monday before being received at the Quirinal, the presidential palace.

According to reports, the parties have agreed on rolling back increases to the age of retirement, while Five Star is willing to follow the League’s hard line anti-immigration policies.

Salvini and Di Maio are also willing to make compromises over their flagship policies — the League’s drastic drop in taxes and Five Star’s universal basic income — which look tricky to reconcile in one of the eurozone’s most indebted countries.

Officials in Brussels have warned Italy for years about its fiscal discipline and the need to lower its debtload.

For the composition of the government, the League and Five Star must also agree on representation from the parties.

Salvini’s League won 17 percent of votes in March, but it was part of a right-wing alliance including Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party that garnered 37 percent of the vote.

Five Star is by far Italy’s largest single party after winning nearly 33 percent of the vote.