Siege in Toulouse

Rather than a neo-Nazi, the man suspected of killing the Muslim paratroopers and the Jewish schoolchildren in Toulouse is an Islamic fundamentalist. As of this writing he is still under siege, holed up in an apartment in a suburb of Toulouse. The police say they are determined to capture him alive.

The media were slavering over the prospect of a neo-Nazi killer and the inevitable take-down of presidential candidate Marine Le Pen that would have followed the arrest of the culprit. Now that the case has a Mohammed Coefficient of 100%, what will they do with themselves?

The murdered rabbi and the children were buried today. As soon as the perp is caught or killed we may expect the incident to disappear quickly from the MSM. Down the memory hole!

But really, the media got exactly what they wanted — isn’t a Muslim terrorist a form of Nazi? Paleo-, neo-, or unmodified: the worthy heir of Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler.

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The Daily Mail has extensive coverage of the siege in Toulouse. See the original article for photos and video. Below are excerpts from the text:

A self-confessed Al Qaeda terrorist thought to have murdered seven people across south west France over the past two weeks was going to post footage of his crimes online today, he claimed.

Mohammed Mera, 24, told news channel France 24’s editor Ebba Kalondo at 1am this morning he had ‘filmed everything’ with a small video camera and ‘intended to put the videos online’.

But just two hours later more than 300 armed police dramatically raided his Toulouse home — where three officers were injured — and he is now cornered and under siege.

He has been described as ‘armed and dangerous’ with a cache including an Uzi machine gun and Kalashnikov assault rifle, with police saying he is likely to kill again.

It has also emerged he was being tracked by French security services ‘for years’ and had broken out of a jail in Kandahar, Afghanistan, as part of a mass Taliban escape in 2008.

He said he is punishing France’s army for its foreign interventions and the plight of Palestinian children — and has promised to give himself up later today.

A close family friend of the 24-year-old suspect told Le Parisien she knew him well while in the city’s Izards housing estate.

The woman, Laela, said: ‘He was well known to the police. Around two years ago he kidnapped a young person on the estate.

‘I remember that the mother of the boy in question was wandering around the estate trying to find him.

‘Finally, her son was freed. And I’m convinced then a complaint was lodged, and Mohammed was heard by investigating officers.’

Following the kidnapping, for which he was never charged, he is said to have ‘crossed the estate in combat gear, with a sword in his hand shouting ‘Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda!’.

Describing his family as ‘charming people’, Laela said: ‘His mother finally left after divorcing her husband.’

This family split, she said, may have contributed to his slip into anti-social behaviour. But the main reason was Islamic fundamentalism.

[…]

He earlier threw a pistol from a window, in exchange for a ‘communication device’ — and police are now blowing entry points into the building in preparation for a raid.

The gunman shouted ‘I can see you!’ at police as they started the raid this morning, before opening fire. One officer was shot in the knee, another on the shoulder, and another in the chest.

But he was protected from serious injury by his bullet-proof vest.

The suspected serial killer is thought to have killed a Rabbi and three pupils at a Jewish school in the city on Monday, and to have assassinated three soldiers last week.

French Interior Minister Claude Gueant said the man, a French-Algerian who had made several visits to Afghanistan, was acting out of revenge for France’s military involvement in the country.

The man, who describes himself as an Islamic warrior, also wanted to take revenge for what he describes as the ‘murder’ of Palestinian children by Israeli forces.

‘He claims to be a Mujahideen and to belong to Al Qaeda,’ said Mr Gueant, who is at the scene of the tense stand-off.

‘He wanted revenge for the Palestinian children and he also wanted to take revenge on the French army because of its foreign interventions.’

Nearby, heavily armed police in bullet-proof vests and helmets cordoned off the area.

[…]

The 30-year-old parachutist was in plain clothes and standing by his motorbike when he was gunned down on Sunday, March 11.

‘Killer and victim had exchanged emails, with the killer using a false account,’ said an investigating source.

Police were also able to trace the gunman through his own bike — a Yamaha T-Max 530 scooter.

They found out where it had been sold, and learnt that the killer had asked how to underdo the tracking system of the vehicle — meaning it could not be traced.

There had also been attempts by the killer to disguise the bike by changing the colour and altering distinctive features.

The suspect was known to the DCRI intelligence unit (Central Directorate of Internal Intelligence).

‘He’s a maniac. I was thinking he was more likely to come from a rougher area than a bourgeois neighbourhood like this. I hope all this will end very quickly.’

[…]

A second man — believed to be the man’s younger brother — was arrested nearby. The gunman’s mother was also at the scene of the siege, trying to persuade the alleged serial killer to give himself up.

She has already told police that she did not want to speak to him ‘because I have no influence of him. Negotiations with the suspect are ongoing, gunfire has been exchanged,’ said Mr Gueant.

The BBC has another report, also with video:

Police hunting a gunman suspected of killing seven people in southern France are laying siege to a flat in Toulouse.

The man, named as Mohammed Merah, 23, a Frenchman of Algerian origin, has said he belongs to al-Qaeda and acted to “avenge Palestinian children”.

Police are negotiating with the man, who is still said to be armed but says he may give himself up this afternoon.

French Interior Minister Claude Gueant said the man had been tracked by French intelligence for “several years”.

The brother of the suspect has been arrested in another part of Toulouse, with several other relatives also reported detained.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has made a televised address, paying tribute to the security forces who are carrying out the operation and saying that terrorism “will never be able to fracture our national community”.

Scooter clues

Mr Gueant, who is at the siege scene, says the suspect has a Kalashnikov, a mini-Uzi 9mm machine pistol and several handguns. He earlier threw one gun, a Colt 45, from a window in exchange for a phone. A .45 calibre pistol was used at all three murder scenes. More weapons were found in a car near the flat.

Mr Gueant said the suspect had no particular demands and that, after initially talking to the authorities, Merah broke off discussions. Negotiations have now resumed, Agence France-Presse reports.

Surrounding buildings have been evacuated.

[…]

Mr Gueant said the suspect had made one visit to Afghanistan and one to Pakistan.

“He claims to be a mujahideen and to belong to al-Qaeda,” Mr Gueant said.

“He wanted revenge for the Palestinian children and he also wanted to take revenge on the French army because of its foreign interventions.”

French media have linked Merah to a group called Forsane Alizza (Knights of Pride) that was banned by Mr Gueant in January.

The prison director in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, Gulam Farooq, told the BBC that Merah was arrested in 2007 and jailed for three years for planting bombs, before escaping in a mass Taliban-led break-out in 2008.

The BBC’s Hugh Schofield in Paris says investigators report that Merah was identified because of an email message sent to his first victim about buying a scooter.

The message, sent from the suspect’s brother’s account, set up an appointment at which the soldier was killed, sources told AFP.

The man had also sought out a garage in Toulouse to have his Yamaha scooter repainted after the first two attacks. A scooter was used in all the attacks.

An editor of the France 24 network said a man had called it overnight saying he was responsible for the shootings and that he wanted to published on the internet films he had made of all of the killings.

Although there is no confirmation it was Merah, France 24 said he had made the same comments as later reported by Mr Gueant, gave the same age and recounted very specific details of the killings.

[...]

After Wednesday’s raid took place, Ms Le Pen said the “fundamentalist threat has been underestimated” in France.

Hat tips: Gaia, Seneca III.