Even as French investigators piece together a clearer picture of events that led on Friday to the beheading of a transport firm manager and attempted destruction of a chemicals plant, the real motivation of the chief suspect remains elusive.
Advertisement
Salhi is presently detained in Lyon but could be transferred to a facility just outside Paris as early as Sunday.
Officials say after the attack he sent a “selfie” of himself and the victim to a Canadian mobile phone number.
Investigators have warned that it could be a relay number and the intended recipient could be anywhere in the world.
He then allegedly placed his employer’s severed head on the factory gate along with Arabic inscriptions, Reuters says.
The severing of the head appeared to imitate the practice of Islamic State militants, who have beheaded prisoners and displayed their heads publicly. He told iTele: “We can not lose this war because it’s fundamentally a war of civilisation“. “It’s our society, our civilisation that we are defending”. ‘‘We should know we’re going to fight this terrorism over the long term.’’.
“The question is not… if there will be another attack, but when”.
Meanwhile, a national day of mourning was declared in Kuwait on Saturday after an attack by a suicide bomber at a Shia Muslim mosque on Friday, which killed at least 27 and injured around 200 people.
An postmortem examination on Cornara has proved inconclusive, with experts unable to determine whether he was killed before his head was cut off. More tests are being carried out.
Any measures to tackle the problem could be ineffective if France ignores the context in which people are attracted to radical causes, he added. “We are all with Hervé”, said Thierry Pouzol, mayor of Fontaines-sur-Saône.
According to the French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, the suspected attacker was identified as Yassin Salhi, who was known to the French intelligence services for his alleged links with Salafist movements.
The attack may also renew tensions surrounding France’s five million Muslims, despite the widespread revulsion expressed by many Islamic leaders and communities over the Charlie Hebdo killings.
Fire fighters were able to overpower him before police arrived and arrested the suspect. President Francois Hollande, dealing with new security fears six months after Islamist gunmen killed 17 people at the offices of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish foodstore, said the incident clearly amounted to a terrorist attack.
“In a situation where small-scale attacks are conducted by unrelated, unaffiliated and often un-trained individuals who can best be categorized as “lone wolves”, attacks are very hard to stop”, University of St. Andrews Lecturer in Terrorism Studies Rashmi Singh said on Friday.
France, which has the highest Muslim population in Europe, last week passed a controversial new spying law granting sweeping powers to snoop on citizens.
Advertisement
Authorities noted the similarity to tactics used by the Islamic State group, though no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
