Subscribe now for Gulf Times. By signing up with an email address, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your email exists. Assailants loyal to the Islamic State IS group forced an elderly priest to his knees before slitting his throat and took several worshippers hostage in a French church yesterday before police shot the attackers dead. It was the latest in a wave of attacks in Europe inspired by the Islamist militant group based in Iraq and Syria that is on the defensive against a US-led military coalition in which France is a major partner.
The knifemen entered the church during morning mass near the northern city of Rouen, northwest of Paris, killing Father Jacques Hamel, an year-old parish priest, and taking four other people hostage, one of whom was seriously wounded. Police shot the attackers dead as they emerged from the church in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray.
The attack was the latest in a string of deadly assaults including the mass killing in Nice, southern France, on Bastille Day 12 days ago and four incidents in Germany, most recently a suicide bombing at a concert in Ansbach on Sunday.
The Islamic State has called on its supporters to take action with any available weapons targeting countries it has been fighting. Police said one person had been arrested. Several French media reported that one of the knifemen was a local man who had spent a year in jail on his return from Turkey after being intercepted trying to travel to Syria, but had been freed on bail with an electronic tag pending trial for alleged terrorism offences.
I demand that the government implement without delay the proposals we presented months ago. There is no more time to be wasted. Far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who is also expected to run for the presidency, said both major parties had failed on security.
