French police stand guard near the church which was attacked in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Seine-Maritime department, France, July 26, 2016.
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“He and Adel Kermiche, also 19, were killed by police after taking hostages Tuesday at a church in St. -Etienne-du-Rouvray in the Normandy region of northern France”. Both Malik and Kermiche tried to escape from the authorities but they were shot dead.
Petitjean, from a town in eastern France, had been on a watch list as a potential security threat since June after trying to enter Syria from Turkey.
The prosecutor’s office identified him as Abdel-Malik Nabil Petitjean following DNA tests on his corpse.
In the video, which comes from the Islamic State’s “news agency” Amaq, the two killers pose with an ISIS flag and occasionally hold hands as they make their pledge of allegiance to “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
“I hereby turn to President Francois Hollande and to Prime Minister Manuel Valls”.
Police had earlier identified the other terrorist as Adel Kermiche, also a 19-year-old teenager from France.
A French parliamentary report on 5 July called for a major revamp of the intelligence services, after an analysis of last year’s Paris attacks which killed 147 people.
An individual by that name is said to be “known to the security services as having been radicalized, although he had no convictions”.
United Kingdom newspapers The Telegraph and The Daily Mail called the assailants “Islamic gunman” and said the killers claimed they were from Daesh.
In Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, the prefect planned a silent march to honour Father Hamel.
The horrific video is just the latest sign that ISIS will increasingly rely on lone-wolf attacks on the West as its territory in the Middle East continues to shrink.
Pope Francis said the slaying of a priest and a string of attacks in Europe in past weeks were proof the “world was at war”, stressing this was not a war of religion but rather one of domination of peoples and economic interests.
“Several elements lead us to believe he is the second attacker”, said one of the sources close to the investigation.
“We deeply desire that our places of worship are the subject of greater (security) focus, a sustained focus”, said Dalil Boubakeur, the head of France’s Muslim community. “I don’t know what happened to him, it was a real brainwashing”.
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France remains in a state of emergency after 84 people were killed when a jihadist drove a lorry through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the nearby city of Nice.
