Chilling details, video surface of attack at French church
PARIS — More horrifying details emerged Wednesday about an attack on a French village church even as the country’s main religious leaders sent a message of unity and solidarity after meeting with President Francois Hollande in Paris.
Two attackers took five hostages Tuesday at the church in Saint-Etienne-duRouvray i n northwest France and slit the throat of a priest saying morning Mass. A nun at the Mass slipped out to raise the alarm and both attackers, one a local man, were then killed by police outside the church.
Emotions in France that were raw after a July 14 truck attack in Nice that killed 84 people became more frazzled after the church in Normandy was attacked. Both deadly attacks were claimed by the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS.
On Wednesday, the ISISaffiliated Amaq news agency released a video allegedly showing the church attackers sitting on a floor, clasping hands and pledging allegiance to the group.
The speaker in the video identified himself by the jihadi nom de guerre Abul Jaleel al-Hanafi and said his compatriot is called Ibn Omar. French prosecutors have previously identified the former as Adel Kermiche, 19, who grew up in the town and tried to travel to Syria twice last year using family members’ identity documents.
Speaking in broken Arabic, Kermiche recited: “We pledge allegiance and obedience to emir of the faithful Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in hardship and in ease.”
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said France is working to protect 56 remaining summer events and may consider canceling some. Mourners pay their respects at a makeshift memorial in front of the Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray church Wednesday.
Defense Minister JeanYves Le Drian said 4,000 members of the Sentinel military force will patrol Paris, while 6,000 will patrol in the provinces. They are being bolstered by tens of thousands of police and reservists.
One of the hostages at the church, an 86-year-old woman, said Wednesday that the attackers had handed her husband, Guy, a cellphone and demanded that he take photos or video of the priest — 85-year-old Rev. Jacques Hamel — after he was slain. Her husband was then slashed in four places by the attackers and is hospitalized.
The woman, identified only as Jeanine, told RMC radio that her husband played dead to stay alive. Two nuns were held hostage along with the couple and the priest.
“He (the priest) fell down looking upwards, toward us,” the woman said.
The Paris prosecutor, Francois Molins, said the attackers had knives and fake explosives.
Kermiche was detained outside France, sent home, handed preliminary terrorism charges and placed under house arrest with a tracking bracelet, allowing him free movement within the region for four hours a day, Molins said.
A police official said the bracelet was deactivated during those four hours, allowing Kermiche to leave the family home without raising alarms. The official was not publicly authorized to speak about the case.
The prosecutor’s office said Wednesday the second attacker has not been formally identified. In addition, police detained a 16-year-old whom Molins said was the younger brother of a young man who traveled to the Syria-Iraq zone of the Islamic State group carrying Kermiche’s ID. He was being questioned Wednesday.
Hollande, meanwhile, presided over a defense council and Cabinet meeting in Paris after speaking with Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish leaders.
Pope Francis, visiting Krakow, Poland, for World Youth Day celebrations, said of the slaying, “It’s war, we don’t have to be afraid to say this.”
He then clarified to say, “I am not speaking of a war of religions. Religions don’t want war. The others want war.”