Knife attack kills 2 amid claim by Islamic State
TRAPPES, France — A man with severe psychiatric problems killed his mother and sister and seriously injured another woman in a knife attack Thursday in a Parisregion town, officials said.
Police shot and killed the man soon afterward. The Islamic State, which has a history of opportunistic claims, swiftly claimed responsibility.
French prosecutors weren’t treating the attack in a residential area of Trappes as a terrorism case, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said. He noted the attacker suffered from serious mental health issues although he had also been flagged for glorifying terrorism and was on a terrorism watch list.
Collomb said that the man killed his mother at her home and stabbed the other women outside. Still wielding the knife, he then ignored police warnings and was shot and killed, the minister said after meeting officers and prosecutors in Trappes.
He described the man as “unstable, rather than someone who was engaged, someone who could respond, for example, to orders and instructions from a terrorist organization, in particular from Daesh.” Daesh is another name for Islamic State.
A long-time friend of the attacker named him as Kamel Salhi, 36. The friend, Said Segreg, said Salhi had no obvious problems, didn’t abuse drugs or alcohol and wasn’t fervently religious.
A government official confirmed Salhi’s name and age. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss such details publicly.
Salhi was divorced and living with his mother, said Adama Traore, another of his acquaintances in Trappes.
The Islamic State, via its Aamaq news agency, claimed responsibility. The agency said the attack was motivated by calls from the Islamic State leadership to attack civilians in countries at war with the extremist group. Hours earlier, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi urged followers to attack enemies everywhere.
The Islamic State, which has lost most of the territories it once controlled in Iraq and Syria, has been known to make opportunistic claims in the past, even when there was no established link between an attacker and the extremist group.
Trappes, a town southwest of Paris that has a reputation for insecurity and violence, has been plagued by unemployment — 20 percent, more than twice the national average. It has a large Muslim population, and it has produced soccer player Nicolas Anelka and popular comedian Omar Sy.
There have not been any large-scale attacks in France this year, but terrorism-related knife attacks have become more frequent. In May, a 20year-old man stabbed five passersby, one fatally, in a crowded Parisian neighborhood before he was killed by police.
In October, an assailant stabbed two women to death in front of the St.-Charles train station in Marseille.