France: Authorities Stopped Tracking Toulouse Gunman Before His Attacks
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Version 0 of 1. The French police and domestic intelligence services stopped regular monitoring of a Toulouse man who killed several people four months later in the city, according to documents leaked to the newspaper Le Monde. The killer, Mohammed Merah, shot seven people, including four Jews, in March before being killed in a shootout with the police. French intelligence had stopped tracking him the previous November, despite his visits to Pakistan and Afghanistan, close links to jihadists, and financing from abroad, the documents suggest. The police even knew that he was composing songs about killing “Western infidels,” and one officer reported that Mr. Merah had stayed close to home and was acting suspiciously, with no Internet service at home, no fixed cellphone and a penchant for public phone booths. Before he died, Mr. Merah said he had been recruited by Al Qaeda. |