Church Attacker Threatens France in New Video
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A Takfiri terrorist involved in the brutal killing of an elderly priest had pledged to attack France in a newly released video, as Catholic bishops called for a day of prayer in a nation shaken by the latest assault.
The assailant has been named as 19-year-old Abdel Malik Petitjean, who was listed in June on France's "Fiche S" system of people posing a potential threat to national security after he tried to reach Syria from Turkey, AFP reported.
Petitjean threatened France and directly addressed President Francois Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls in the footage released by Daesh (also known as ISIL and ISIS).
Dressed in a striped t-shirt, Petitjean speaks mostly in French but uses some Arabic phrases, and appears to be filming in a home.
Petitjean, whose face was disfigured when he was shot dead by police, had been harder to identify than his accomplice Adel Kermiche, also 19. Investigators confirmed his identity after a DNA match with his mother.
The pair pledged allegiance to Daesh in a video made before they stormed a church in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray Tuesday and slit the throat of 86-year-old priest Jacques Hamel at the altar.
The president of the Conference of Bishops in France Georges Pontier called on all Catholics in the country to observe a day of national prayers and fasting Friday "for our country and for peace in the world".
The church attack came as the government was already facing a firestorm of criticism over alleged security failings after the Bastille Day truck massacre in Nice that left 84 people dead two weeks ago.
