TerrorismFrench police commander, partner killed by ISIS follower
Larossi Abballa, a 25-year old French man who had served time for taking part in a jihadi recruitment network and claiming allegiance to IS, stabbed a Paris police commander and his partner at their home, in front of the 3-year old child, before being killed by a SWAT team which stormed their home. ISIS claimed the killing was part of a new campaign targeting French law enforcement personnel.
French security vigilence is not always effective // Source: brookings.edu
Larossi Abballa, a 25-year old French man who had served time for taking part in a jihadi recruitment network and claiming allegiance to IS, stabbed a Paris police commander and his partner at their home, in front of the 3-year old child, before being killed by a SWAT team which stormed their home. Le Monde reports that Jean-Baptiste Salvaing, 42, a police commander had returned to his in the suburb of Magnanville, about 30 miles west of Paris, at 8:30 p.m. on Monday night in plain clothes, when Abballa lay in wait for him hidden behind a gate.
Salvaing struggled with Abballa and shouted to neighbors to call the police, but Abballa overpowered him and killed him on the pavement with repeated stabs to the stomach.
Abballa then ran into the house and held hostage the commander’s 36-year-old partner, who worked as a police administrator in a police station in nearby Mantes-la-Jolie, as well as the couple’s three-year-old son.
The police quickly arrived on the scene, evacuated neighbors, sealed off the area, and cut off electricity.
Police tried to negotiate with Abballa, who said he was an ISIS soldier and that he had deliberately targeted police.
Shortly before midnight, the police stormed the house and killed the attacker. They found the woman dead from a knife-wound to the neck, but the couple’s son was alive and unharmed.
Abballa posted live images of the attack. David Thomson, a French journalist specializing in jihadist movements, tweeted that the Abballa filmed himself at the scene inside the house with the three-year-old boy behind him on the sofa. While the boy was listening, Abballa said: “I don’t know yet what I’m going to do with him.”
Thomson noted that the Facebook account was deactivated and the video was being examined by police.
Le Mondesays that in 2013 Abballa had been sentenced to three years in prison for “criminal association in view to preparing terrorist attacks” over his role in a recruitment network of jihadists to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Already in 2011, when he was 20 years old, he had a police records for carious crimes, including theft and violence.
He was on the French police terrorist-monitoring list.
