French police identify shooter

Read Time:2 Minute, 29 Second

Wednesday, in Toulouse, France, approximately 300 police officers surrounded an apartment, trying to coax a man whom authorities have described as self-styled al Qaeda jihadist to surrender.

Police in southern France believe the man, named by an anonymous source as Mohammed Merah, is responsible for the shootings that have taken seven lives over the past ten days, including three children at a Jewish school.

At one point, during the standoff, the suspect fired shots from the apartment, wounding two officers. He then threw a handgun out a window, but authorities believe he has more weapons with him. The suspect told Interior Minister Claude Gueant that he intend to surrender sometime in the afternoon, and Gueant is taking him at his word.

Gueant states that the suspect is 24 years old and a French national of Algerian descent who has spent considerable time in Pakistan and Afghanistan. “He claims to be a jihadist and says he belongs to al Queda. He wants to avenge the Palestinian children and take revenge on the French army because of its foreign intervention,” Gueant told reporters at the scene of the standoff. Gueant did not make clear how he had come by this information.

Gueant also said the suspect belongs to the group Forsanne Alizza, or Knights of Glory. The French government banned the Knights of Glory in January for trying to recruit people to fight in Afghanistan. Announcing the ban of the group, Gueant said is it “unacceptable that in our country a group is training people for armed struggle.”

France has been on “scarlet alert,” the highest security alert in the country, since the first shooting of a French soldier. The suspect was traced through his brother’s IP address, which he used to contact the first victim. Imad Ibn Ziaten, a paratrooper of North African origin, agreed to meet a man in Toulouse in order to sell him a scooter he had advertised online. A message sent from the brother’s IP address was used to set up a meeting to inspect the scooter, authorities said. The date of the appointment was March 11th, the day Ziaten was murdered.

The bodies of the four victims killed at Ozar Hatorah school arrived in Jerusalem Wednesday for burial. “Today, all Israel is in pain and mourning over the deaths of innocent children and a dedicated father,” Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told the families as the coffins were lowered from the plane.

Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, was born and raised in the southern French town of Bordeaux, but pursued his religious studies in Israel. His sons, Gabriel, 4, and Arieh, 5, will be buried with him. The fourth victim, Miriam Monsonego, age 7, will rest in another cemetery.

Our hearts and thoughts are with the people of France and the families of those slain.

Thanks to CNN for information and contributions to this report.

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