French Airport: Terrorist Shot Dead After Trying To Take Soldier’s Weapon (UPDATES)
Soldiers unharmed, public safe.
A man on the French terror watch list shot and wounded a police officer in northern Paris before traveling to Orly airport where he tackled a female soldier and tried to take her rifle. She was among the French soldiers on anti-terror patrols of the airport. She did not release her weapon to the terrorist, and he was subsequently shot and killed by other soldiers.
The dead terrorist has been identified as Ziyed Ben Belgacem, a radicalized Muslim whose apartment was among those searched following the coordinated Paris terror attacks in November 2015.
Police investigating whether Orly airport attack is linked to earlier shooting north of Paris & if terror related https://t.co/nm2sXhWAHc
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) March 18, 2017
Paris Orly airport attacker was on terror watch list, same man as suspect involved in earlier shooting – officials https://t.co/T4386p2hAo
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) March 18, 2017
The 39-year-old suspected attacker killed at Paris’ Orly airport on Saturday after trying to wrestle away a soldier’s weapon had already crossed authorities’ radars for suspected Islamic extremism.
Paris prosecutors said suspect’s house was among scores searched in November 2015 in the immediate aftermath of suicide bomb-and-gun attacks that killed 130 people in Paris. Those searches targeted people with suspected radical leanings.
. . . . A French official connected to the investigation confirmed French media reports identifying the attacker as Ziyed Ben Belgacem.
. . . . French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the attacker, whom he did not identify, assaulted three Air Force soldiers who were patrolling the airport. He said the soldier who was attacked managed to hold on to her rifle and the two soldiers she was with opened fire to protect her and the public.
No one else in the busy terminal was hurt, but thousands of travelers were evacuated and flights were diverted to the city’s other airport.
A spokesman for the military force that patrols public sites in France told BFM television the soldier attacked at was “shocked” but uninjured after the “very violent aggression” by a man who was quickly shot dead by two of her fellow patrolmen.
Fox also reports on the earlier car-jacking incident in which the terrorist wounded another officer in the face.
Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux said the man was linked with a carjacking about 90 minutes earlier in a northern Paris suburb and that police and intelligence services know who he is.
In that incident, the Paris police office said, a man fired a birdshot at officers who stopped him during a traffic stop, wounding one in the face. He then fled and stole a woman’s car after threatening her with a weapon. That car was found near Orly.
A police source described him as a radicalized Muslim but did not identify him by name, according to Reuters.
The soldiers involved in the incident are part of the Sentinelle special forces who have been installed around France to protect sensitive areas.
The soldiers were part of the Sentinelle special forces, an elite military group installed around France to protect sensitive sites after a string of deadly extremist attacks.
. . . . The French presidential hopeful Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to the troops involved in the Sentinelle operation. The independent centrist said during a speech in Paris that the soldiers attacked at Orly airport “once again demonstrated calm, control and professionalism”.
Reuters reports that French president Hollande “said the case had been turned over to anti-terrorism prosecutors and a number of operations were under way. The incident had shown the need for the ‘Sentinelle’ security operation brought in after an outbreak of attacks by militants in 2015, he said.”
Reuters is also reporting that the terrorist texted his father saying, “I’ve screwed up. I’ve shot a policeman.”
Watch:
UPDATES (3/19/17):
The terrorist reportedly announced that he was at Orly to “die in the name of Allah” and that “people are going to die.”
Belgacem arrived at the airport and attacked the military patrol in the south terminal.
He tried to seize the servicewoman’s automatic weapon, put his gun to her head and said: “I’m here to die for Allah. In any case people are going to die.”
He was then shot dead by two other soldiers.
A copy of the Koran was found on his body, Mr Molins added.
The father of the dead terrorist claims that his son is not a terrorist and that his actions were the result of alcohol and marijuana.
The father of the man shot dead at Orly airport in Paris after attacking a French solider insisted Sunday his son was “not a terrorist.”
Ziyed Ben Belgacem held a gun on a female soldier while shouting: “I am here to die in the name of Allah … There will be deaths,” before two of the soldier’s comrades shot him dead Saturday, a prosecutor told reporters.
But speaking to France’s Europe 1 radio, Belgacem’s father denied his son was a terrorist and instead blamed his actions on drugs and alcohol.
“My son was not a terrorist. He never prayed and he drank,” said the father, who is not being named by French authorities.
“This is what happens under the influence of drink and cannabis.”
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Comments
I call that the best possible ending.
The heading above the photo:
***”Soldiers unharmed, public safe.”***
is not correct. The public in that immediate area, at that particular time, are safe from that particular attacker. Everyone in France is at risk of being attacked by terrorists 24/7/365.
Heh, okay, public safeish while in the midst of masses of soldiers and law enforcement immediately following the thwarted attack. 😛
I think you’re missing something here. If masses of soldiers and police make the public safer, why didn’t this jihadi avoid the airport when he knew masses of soldiers and police were patrolling it?
Surah 9:111 At-Tawbah
“Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their properties [in exchange] for that they will have Paradise. They fight in the cause of Allah , so they kill and are killed. [It is] a true promise [binding] upon Him in the Torah and the Gospel and the Qur’an. And who is truer to his covenant than Allah ? So rejoice in your transaction which you have contracted. And it is that which is the great attainment.”
The fact masses of soldiers and police were patrolling the airport made it a more attractive target, not less. We’re doing it wrong, mostly because we refuse to connect these attacks to the ideology that provides the motives and goals to the attackers. As long as we do that, we’re actually cultivating these jihadi attackers.
And the public is not safe, especially in the midst of masses of soldiers and police.
Oooh, great points, Arminius. I meant after the thwarted attack, though, when first responders, et al. showed up at the scene, and the terrorist was already dead.
I would point out that the offices of Charlie Hebdo weren’t exactly crawling with armed guards.
They’re going to attack us. Removing effective countermeasures will not dissuade them, it just might make them choose some other target. Might.
Charlie Hebdo was targeted for a specific reason. This airport attack appears more of a target of opportunity. After a carjacking gone bad he texted his dad that he had screwed up and shot a policeman. When he tackled the female soldier he announced he was there to die for Allah.
The guy’s dad is trying to explain this away:
““My son was not a terrorist. He never prayed and he drank,” said the father, who is not being named by French authorities.”
Surah 9:111 again. Please read it carefully:
“Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their properties [in exchange] for that they will have Paradise. They fight in the cause of Allah , so they kill and are killed. [It is] a true promise [binding] upon Him in the Torah and the Gospel and the Qur’an. And who is truer to his covenant than Allah ? So rejoice in your transaction which you have contracted. And it is that which is the great attainment.”
Most Muslims go through life unsure if they will go to heaven or hell. And hell is meticulously and gleefully described in the Muslim sources. Allah will throw you into the fire and when your skin is burned off Allah will give you a new skin to burn it off again. If you beg for water he’ll pour molten lead down your throat.
The problem is the normal way to determine your fate is simply to try and do good deeds; pray, give to the poor, fast, make the Hajj. Two angels sit on your shoulders, one recording your good deeds, the other recording your bad deeds. when you die and are judged Allah will weigh your good deeds against your bad deeds on a set of scales. If your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds you go to Islamic paradise. If it’s the other way around you go to hell.
How many good deeds, and how many bad deeds have you done, and how much does each one weigh? This keeps a lot of Muslims up at night. There’s just no way to know. Then there’s this:
Surah 46:8-9
“Or do they say, ‘He has forged it’? Say: ‘If I have forged it, you have no power to help me against Allah. He knows very well what you are pressing upon; He suffices as a witness between me and you; He is the All-forgiving, the All-compassionate.’ Say: ‘I am not an innovation among the Messengers, and I know not what shall be done with me or with you. I only follow what is revealed to me; I am only a clear warner.”
Muhammad was Rasul Allah, Allah’s Messenger. He was called Habib Allah, Allah’s beloved. The Quran has a verse proclaiming Muhammad the perfect moral example and other Muslims should pattern their lives on his. And not even Muhammad knew what would happen to him when he died.
There’s a pattern shaping up, particularly in France but we’ve seen it here with the Boston bombers, the Chattanooga shooter, and the Ohio state and UNC students who tried to run down other students on campus.
They’re bad Muslims all their lives. They go clubbing, they drink, smoke pot, take drugs, they sleep around with their girlfriends. They decide to get more serious about their religion. They start reading, and it scares the hell out of them. If not even Muhammad could know if he’d go to heaven or hell, what chance do they have of avoiding hell after spending their lives committing every sin in the book.
Getting killed “fighting in Allah’s way” expiates all their sins and guarantees them paradise (migrating in the cause of Allah also guarantees them paradise; it’s the second of only two ways to guarantee a place in heaven). “[It is] a true promise [binding] upon Him in the Torah and the Gospel and the Qur’an. And who is truer to his covenant than Allah?”
The guy in Nice who ran down and killed 80 fit this pattern exactly. Despite the heavy police presence I don’t think any of them would call that effective security measures. This is an extremely dangerous ideology. I was a Naval Intelligence officer and I studied it since the 1980s. It came in handy particularly when I was providing support to counter terror or force protection assets. But I retired in 2008 before this country lost its mind. Under Obama it was a firing offense to connect terrorism to Islam despite the fact that everyone can see the connection.
LEOs, intel typses, and natsec personnel will not doubt not make the connection between Islam and this attack. They’ll probably adopt some version of the father’s story that it couldn’t be terrorism because the guy was a bad Muslim. But if you know anything about Islam (since 2011 it’s been official US policy that you’re not allowed to know anything about Islam) it is precisely because he was a bad Muslim that he chose this airport. He knew that was the one place he could go to find enough sec.urity forces to get shot dead “fighting in the cause of Allah.”
You can’t beat an enemy you don’t know. You certainly can’t beat an enemy you’re not allowed to know because you’re working for people who don’t want to know. But until we have a handle on this ideology we’ll never be able to develop effective counter measures in the first place.
Fuzzy, the public everywhere will not be truly safe until there are no more Islamic Supremacists looking at the grass from the green side. That sounds harsh, cruel even, but it is the nature of this enemy that makes it inevitable; they have declared war on the entire non-Muslim world, a holy war, and they will not stop until they are exterminated. Simply defeating them is not enough – if it were, the problem would have been solved centuries back by Vlad Drakul and Charles Martel.
The dead terrorist…
The best kind of terrorist.
… installed around France to protect sensitive areas.
A very European concept.
As an American, I’d consider the area where this occurred—
… suicide bomb-and-gun attacks that killed 130 people in Paris
pretty damn sensitive.
But I’d make a lousy European.
The terrorist wrested the gun from a female soldier. Another reason why soldering in for men.
Read it again. This time for comprehension.