Church attackers; Islamic State link

PARIS:

Two jihadists who attacked a French church and brutally murdered a priest had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group. The attack in the Normandy town of SaintEtienne-du-Rouvray came as France was still coming to terms with the Bastille Day killings in Nice claimed by IS. Here is what we know so far about the church attack:

What happened?

Two men arrived at the 17th century Eglise Saint-Etienne during morning mass, attacking the church and taking five hostages inside. During the siege they killed a priest in his 80s by slitting his throat and seriously injured another captive. The victim was Father Jacques Hamel, a semi-retired assistant parish priest, according to the archbishop of nearby Rouen, Dominique Lebrun.Hamel was born in 1930 in Darnetal, a town near Saint-Etienne du Rouvray, and was ordained in 1958, according to information on the diocesan website. This is the first jihadist attack on a church on French soil since IS carried out its first assaults in Syria’s war in 2013.Some 65 percent of France’s population identify as Catholics, according to the Ifop polling centre. The country’s second-largest religion, Islam, has five million followers.

Taken down by police

As the two attackers made to leave the church they were confronted by a French police unit specializing in hostage situations, the BRI, and shot dead. Three of the hostages were freed unharmed. The scene was then secured by officers from France’s elite RAID unit, who scoured the area for explosive devices. None was found.

Who were the attackers?

One of the attackers has been identified as French jihadist 19-year-old Adel Kermiche, who was awaiting trial on terror charges and had been fitted with an electronic tag despite calls from the prosecutor for him not to be released. Sources close to the investigation also said the second assailant, named as Abdel Malik Petitjean, “strongly resembles” a man hunted by anti-terrorism police in the days before the attack over fears he was about to carry out an act of terror. Petitjean, also 19, was listed in June on France’s “Fiche S” system of people posing a potential threat to national security after he tried to reach Syria from Turkey.

New video posted by the IS news agency Amaq showed Petitjean, speaking in French and Arabic, threatening France and directly addressing President Francois Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls.In a separate video also posted by Amaq, two bearded men, calling themselves by the noms de guerre Abu Omar and Abu Jalil Al-Hanafi, hold hands as they swear “obedience” to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Earlier this week, IS said the two assailants were its “soldiers” and the attack retribution for France’s fight against the jihadists in the Middle East. Kermiche, who was known to France’s anti-terrorism police, tried twice to go to Syria in 2015. He had already threatened to attack a church, according to witness testimony collected in his neighborhood. — AFP