Second French jihadi may have been involved in Peter Kassig murder video
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Version 0 of 1. Intelligence services in France are investigating whether a second French jihadi was involved in the cold-blooded murder of more than a dozen Syrian soldiers and American hostage Peter Kassig. Officers told France 2 television that they recognised a second Frenchman among the killers in Sunday’s Islamic State (Isis) video of the beheadings. Following the killings, police have opened an inquiry into an “assassination by an organised group as part of a terrorist action” against two French suspects, including Islam convert Maxime Hauchard. The 22-year-old from Normandy had been named as the first Frenchman in the Isis propaganda video. And the Paris prosecutor, François Molins, has confirmed that officials are trying to determine the identity of a second suspected French jihadi in the footage. “It seems, judging by [a] certain resemblance, a young convert born in 1992 who left to join the Islamic State ranks in August 2013,” Molins said. He added that an arrest warrant on the suspect has been out since October last year. His comments came as France’s interior ministry released figures on Tuesday, stating that 1,132 French citizens were implicated in Isis – either as would-be fighters or suppliers of false papers. There are believed to be around 376 French Isis fighters while dozens more are said to be on their way or to have returned. The interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said 138 suspected Islamists in France were under investigation or in prison and had been neutralised. Speaking to France TV, Cazeneuve said that five planned terrorist attacks in France had been foiled. He also said: “There is a possibility (of a second French jihadi) … our experts are analysing things to confirm or not this information and if it is confirmed we will name him.” Hauchard, meanwhile, was revealed to be part of a group of Islamist youngsters from the Rouen region. He appeared on the intelligence services’ radar after two trips to a Qur’anic school run by Salafists in Mauritania. Hauchard, who now calls himself Abu Abdallah al Faransi, returned to France disappointed because the teaching was “not radical enough”. Since then he left for Syria and in July spoke to French broadcaster BFMTV from the city of Raqqa, where Isis had set up a base. He said: “My personal aim is, of course, to be a martyr.” On Facebook, he has urged other would-be jihadis to join him. French authorities believe as many as a fifth of French people travelling to Syria to join Isis are converts to Islam. Pascal Hauchard, 54, Maxime’s uncle, told Le Parisien he could not understand what had sparked his nephew’s conversion to extremism. “I don’t understand what my nephew has become,” he said. “Honestly, I find it hard to believe. What suddenly took my nephew into the barbaric madness … he was never even a naughty child.” |