The Star Malaysia

Standoff in France

Police press for the surrender of holed-up ‘al-qaeda’ man suspected in killings

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French police ready to storm building for al-qaeda man suspected in seven killings.

TOULOUSE: After a pre-dawn raid erupted into a firefight, French riot police pressed for the surrender of a holed-up gunman who is a suspect in seven killings and claiming allegiance to al-qaeda. A prosecutor said the man was planning to kill another soldier imminently.

After 13 hours of negotiatio­ns, one French official said hundreds of police were ready to storm the building in the southweste­rn city of Toulouse to end the standoff.

Three police have already been wounded trying to arrest the 24year-old Frenchman of Algerian descent who is suspected of killing three Jewish children, a rabbi and three French paratroope­rs.

Prosecutor Francois Molins said the gunman, Mohamed Merah, had been to Afghanista­n twice and had trained in the Pakistani militant stronghold of Waziristan.

An Interior Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the suspect has been under surveillan­ce for years for having “fundamenta­list” Islamic views.

The police raid was part of France’s biggest manhunt since a wave of terrorist attacks in the 1990s by Algerian extremists.

The chase began after France’s worst-ever school shooting on Monday and two previous attacks on paratroope­rs, killings that have horrified the country and frozen the campaignin­g for the French presidenti­al election next month.

Cedric Delage, regional secretary for a police union, said the suspect has promised to turn himself into police shortly.

Delage said if that doesn’t happen, police will force their way in.

The suspect had told police he belonged to al-qaeda and wanted to take revenge for Palestinia­n children killed in the Middle East, Interior Minister Claude Gueant said, adding that the man was also angry about French military interventi­on abroad.

In the negotiatio­ns yesterday, the suspect “expresses no regret, only that he didn’t have time to have more victims. And he even bragged of bringing France to its knees,” the prosecutor said.

Police swept in soon after 3am to the residentia­l neighbourh­ood in northern Toulouse where the suspect was holed up.

At one point, volleys of gunfire were exchanged.

The suspect promised several times to surrender in the afternoon, then stopped talking to negotiator­s, Gueant said. In the early afternoon, he resumed talking.

French authoritie­s said the suspect threw a Colt .45 handgun used in each of the three attacks out a window in exchange for a device to talk to authoritie­s, but has more weapons like an AK-47 assault rifle. Gueant said other weapons had been found in the suspect’s car.

“The main concern is to arrest him, and to arrest him in conditions by which we can present him to judicial officials,” Gueant said, explaining authoritie­s want to “take him alive ... It is imperative for us.”

The first French paratroope­r killed was shot on March 11 after posting an announceme­nt online to sell his motorcycle and investigat­ors believe the gunman responded and lured the paratroope­r into an isolated place to kill him.

Those slain at the Jewish school, all of French-israeli nationalit­y, were buried in Israel yesterday as relatives sobbed inconsolab­ly.

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 ??  ?? Bombing probe: Police conducting their investigat­ions outside the Indonesian embassy where a package bomb exploded in Paris. The package was discovered by an embassy employee who removed it from the building in Rue Cortambert. Report on Page 42. — EPA
Bombing probe: Police conducting their investigat­ions outside the Indonesian embassy where a package bomb exploded in Paris. The package was discovered by an embassy employee who removed it from the building in Rue Cortambert. Report on Page 42. — EPA
 ??  ?? In grief: Caroline (right), a companion of late paratroope­r Abel Chennouf, attending his funeral. He was killed by a militant. — AFP
In grief: Caroline (right), a companion of late paratroope­r Abel Chennouf, attending his funeral. He was killed by a militant. — AFP

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