In a video released by the Islamic State group and records in the suburban Paris home of his victims, a former jihadi recruiter confessed to killing a police officer and his female companion and listed other prominent people he planned to target. The attack late Monday touched already raw nerves. It recalled elements of the Orlando, Florida, killings at a gay nightclub days earlier, and revived French concerns about the IS threat after the group targeted Paris in November, killing people.
A state of emergency is still in place, and 90, security forces are now deployed to protect the European Championship soccer tournament taking place across France. Also Read: Facebook struggles with abuse of content as French killer uploads a live video. The suspect, Larossi Abballa, a year-old Frenchman once convicted of jihadi recruitment for Pakistan, staked out off-duty police commander Jean-Baptiste Savaing and stabbed him in front of his house in the suburb of Magnanville, about 35 miles 55 kilometers west of Paris, according to police.
About an hour after the video was posted on Facebook , police stormed the house, killing Abballa and rescuing the child, Molins told reporters. Unusually, the video was edited. The victims do not appear. The timing may not have been coincidental: The killings came after IS urged supporters to carry out attacks in Europe or America during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is currently under way. Salvaing, 42, was a police commander in the Paris suburb of Les Mureaux; his companion has not been identified.
Authorities have not said whether there was any link between Abballa and the victims. The main question for anti-terrorism investigators now is whether Abballa had accomplices or was part of a larger network. Earlier in the day, three people ages 27, 29 and 44 were detained in the investigation, Molins said. Two had been convicted with Abballa in for involvement in a network recruiting for jihad in Pakistan, a French official said.
Hollande also spoke Tuesday night with President Barack Obama. The two leaders decided to increase security cooperation after the latest attacks. Abballa was from the western Paris suburb of Mantes-la-Jolie, and lived in a well-kept, working class neighborhood where shaken residents described puzzlement at the attack.
