Now we have the bad incident in the peaceful Normandy village of Saint-Etienne-du-Vouvray when a much revered priest, Father Jacques Hamel, was murdered in church when taking mass for his parishioners (“France “at war” with Islamic State after slaying of priest”, The Herald, July 27).
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French President Francois Hollande said his country was at “war” with IS, adding: “To attack a church, to kill a priest, is to profane the Republic”. Both attackers were later killed by the police outside the church as they attempted to flee.
The footage, which was posted on Wednesday on the ISIL-linked website Amaq, appears to show two young men naming themselves as “Abu Omar” and “Abu Jalil al-Hanafi” and reciting a pledge of allegiance to ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
French officials on Thursday identified the second man responsible for attacking a Catholic church in Normandy as a 19-year-old who was spotted last month in Turkey as he supposedly headed to Syria – but returned to France instead.
Her husband was then slashed in four places by the attackers and is now hospitalised with serious injuries.
Kermiche and his accomplice entered the centuries-old stone church of Saint Etienne, taking hostage the priest, Jacques Hamel, three nuns and two worshippers.
Hollande, meanwhile, presided over a defence council and Cabinet meeting in Paris after speaking with Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish leaders.
“What has enabled France to break up a large number of terrorist networks is keeping these people under “S file” surveillance, which allows intelligence services to work without these individuals being aware”, he said on Europe 1 radio.
Mr. Hollande and his ministers were already under fire from conservative opponents over the policing of Bastille Day celebrations in the Riviera city of Nice in which 84 people died when a delivery man drove a heavy truck at revelers.
Kermiche was from Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, where the attack took place in northwest France.
ISIS has released a video it claims shows the two knifemen who murdered a French priest swearing allegiance to the terror group.
The Church of England maintains that churches should be vigilant, but should not close to the public in response to the attack on the French priest.
But the deputy chief of France’s police union, Frederic Lagache, said: “It should not be possible for someone awaiting trial on charges of having links to terrorism to be released” on house arrest.
Other people who knew him describe him as a “ticking time bomb”, and the local mosque had asked him to not attend prayers after his second detainment.
Pope Francis, visiting Krakow, Poland, for World Youth Day celebrations, said of the slaying of the priest, “It’s war, we don’t have to be afraid to say this”.
“When we saw the knife in the right hand I said to myself, ‘well, something’s really going to happen there'”.
“We talked about religion and how to live together”.
With 56 remaining summer events to protect, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve stated on Wednesday that events without “optimal” security will be canceled.
On Wednesday Cazeneuve said that the appeal has been met with enthusiasm by French citizens, and that 2,500 people had expressed their interest in the previous ten days.
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Kermiche was known to security services and had been arrested twice in 2015 for trying to reach Syria to join the Islamic State, Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins said.
