A police car outside of the residence of the suspect. Yahoo/AFP.
A French-Algerian student who had planned to attack churches in a Charlie Hebdo style terror attack was arrested before he could pull off the plot. Yahoo/AFP. The 24 year old was arrested after he reported to police that he had been shot in the leg. Weapons, body armor, communications equipment and detailed plans to attack two churches were found in his home and car. The suspect claimed he was injured while "settling scores" but police haven't ruled out the possibility that he injured himself. The man was known as a possible threat by French anti-terror units. Further complicating the situation, the man's DNA was found in the car of a missing woman's car. The woman had been shot 3 times in the chest and a computer in her car was found smoldering. Investigators are trying to determine what, if any, connection the woman, a 32 year old mother, had with the suspect.
My Comment:
Thankfully there are some really stupid terrorists out there. I don't buy for a second that the suspect was hurt "settling scores". That sounds like something he would make up in order to sound like a bad-ass. My guess is that he shot himself because he didn't follow gun safety. Either way though, that must have one hell of a dilemma for him. I guess if the choice is bleeding out or calling for help and getting arrested I would choose to get arrested, but as a terrorist on a probable suicide mission, why would you care? Why not just shoot it out with the cops?
Even though this guy looks fairly incompetent, it is clear that he had some pretty significant backing from some terror organization. The guy was a 24 year old in college, he wouldn't have the money to buy the significant hardware he was equipped with. And I read "war weapons" as "high powered/fully automatic rifles" and possibly "explosives". You need cash and connections to get those kinds of weapons in Europe, and I don't see this guy planing this on his own. He had help, and I am guessing it was Al-Qaeda since they were the ones that pulled of the Charlie Hebdo attacks.
The real question is there were other members of his cell or if he was the only shooter. It is possible that there is one or more people that were involved with this plot. If so, they could be on the run and may end up trying to pull off a less elaborate but still potentially deadly attack. And if the planners get away then they can just recruit another person, and maybe this time they will hire someone who won't get shot somehow before he pulls off the operation. The French authorities need to figure out who this guy knew and track them down and fast.
I was somewhat surprised that he was targeting Churches. Most of the terror attacks in Europe lately have targeted Jews. Of course, radical Muslims hate both Christians and Jews, so it isn't that surprising, but it's still not what I would expect. I know that Christianity isn't quite as popular in Europe as it is in America, but there are still a lot of people that go to church there. This could have been a very serious incident and it might be time for the churches of Europe to up their security measures. The fact that a church might need armed guards in Europe of all places is just disgusting to me, and I am not very religious.
As for the possible connection to the woman's murder, I don't know what to think about it. It is possible that they were boyfriend girlfriend, but that seems unlikely to me. From what I have read about both of them it seems like they were too different to be in a relationship. I guess it could be a random crime or something else, but I can't even speculate too much on her case.
I've said before that the Charlie Hebdo attacks changed the way that terrorism was going to be done. These attacks are cheaper, harder to disrupt and have a huge impact. Let's face it, the French got incredibly lucky that this guy got shot somehow. If he hadn't, we wouldn't have been hearing about him until he shot up a French Church. Unfortunately, we can't rely on being that lucky. Europe needs to think long and hard about how to counter these kinds of gunman attacks...
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