U.S.-Russia progress on Syria

Priest, 85, butchered in France

A PAIR OF ISIS-INSPIRED, knife-wielding terrorists stormed a church service in France on Tuesday, killing an elderly priest by slashing his throat, authorities said.

French police shot and killed the two attackers, who slipped in through a back door and took several parishioners and the cleric hostage during a 10 a.m. Mass at the church near Rouen in Normandy, about 80 miles north of Paris, authorities said.

The slain priest was identified as the Rev. Jacques Hamel, 85.

Officials said the attackers stabbed him in the chest before slitting his throat, in the first known ISIS attack on a Christian house of worship in Europe.

One of the assailants was identified as Adel Kermiche, 19, who grew up in Normandy and tried to travel to Syria twice last year using a relative’s paperwork. He was facing terrorism charges and wore an electronic surveillance bracelet that was deactivated for a few hours every morning as part of the surveillance agreement.

A third person was detained in the investigation of the attack, according to French prosecutors. No other details had emerged about that person.

The deadly takeover at the Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray Church lasted for about an hour before police shot and killed the attackers as they left the building holding weapons and using hostages as shields. Police rescued three hostages from the church, officials said.

French President Francois Hollande, who arrived at the church soon after the siege, said the “cowardly assassination” was carried out by “by two terrorists in the name of Daesh” — another name for ISIS.

Another hostage, who was not identified, was stabbed in the hip and throat. Officials described that victim as hovering “between life and death.”

Sister Daniele Delafosse, who was able to escape the attack, told a French television station the terrorists were filming the takeover and they gathered around the altar to perform a religious oration in Arabic.

They then forced Hamel to his knees and placed a knife to his neck as congregants pleaded with them to stop, she said.

One of the attackers shouted, “Allahu Akbar” as the two attackers left the church, said prosecutor Francois Molins.The killers — one wore a fake explosive belt, while the other carried a kitchen timer and fake bomb — were “neutralized” when they left the church, Molins said.

The Vatican condemned the “barbarous killing.”

It follows months of attacks across Europe linked to ISIS, including two weeks ago in the French city of Nice, when a man rammed a truck through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day, leaving 84 people dead.