He also said more of the country’s 10,000-strong Operation Sentinel anti-terror forces would be deployed to areas outside Paris following the Nice attack and the killing in Normandy. They were being bolstered by tens of thousands of police and reservists.
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Mr Molins said the attackers, who claimed allegiance to Islamic State, also cried “Allahu Akbar” – God is great – during the attack on 85-year-old Father Jacques Hamel.
Kermiche’s tag did not send an alarm because the attack took place during the four hour period when he was allowed out. The 86-year-old woman was one of the five persons held hostage on Tuesday at the Normandy church, along with her husband, two nuns, and the priest. “He (the priest) fell down looking upwards, toward us”.
One had three knives and a fake explosives belt, while the other carried a kitchen timer wrapped in aluminium foil and had fake explosives in his backpack.
He was sent back to France and detained until late March this year when he was released on bail pending trial for alleged membership of a terrorist organization. During that time, the tracking device was deactivated and he was permitted to go anywhere in the region as long as he returned home by the appointed hour, according to a police official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.
Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said Kermiche twice tried to travel to Syria under a false identity. He was still being questioned Wednesday.
With some conservative politicians warning of a “war of religions”, Hollande sought to head off divisions in a meeting with Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist leaders.
“We can not allow ourselves to be dragged into the politics of Daesh (Islamic State), which wants to set the children of the same family against each other”, the Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, told journalists after the meeting at the Elysee presidential palace.
The rector of the main Paris mosque, Dalil Boubakeur, said France’s Muslims must push for better training of Muslim clerics and urged that reforming French Muslim institutions be put on the agenda, but without elaborating.
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”. “The others want war”.
In the town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, young and old were stunned by the attack.
When he heard about the attack, “I knew it was him, I was sure”, the young man told The Associated Press, identifying himself as Redwan.
“We were saying that is not good. And he was replying that France is the land of unbelievers”, Redwan said.
“We are scared”, said Mulas Arbanu.
“What is necessary is for us all to work together, and stand shoulder to shoulder with France”.
Said Aid Lahcen had met the slain priest in the past.
A police officer is then seen escorting a nun from the church.
“Several elements lead us to believe he is the second attacker”, said one of the sources close to the investigation.
It’s hard to imagine “soldiers” who attack innocent people, people just going about their daily lives, people who aren’t a direct threat to them in any real way and especially soldiers who would attack a priest in his church during a Mass, at the altar.
France was already in a state of shock less than two weeks after the Nice truck attack. Like Kermiche, Abdel Malik P. allegedly tried to journey to Syria to join the Islamic State.
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Kermiche was rapidly identified as he had been under house arrest, and was wearing a monitoring bracelet, after being arrested in Turkey for trying to reach Syria.
