Young Algerian Man Attempts Terrorist Attack in France
A 24-year-old Algerian man was arrested when police discovered that he had plans to attack at least 2 churches. The computer science student, who moved to France in 2009 from Algeria under the “regrouping of families” rule, called an ambulance claiming to have accidentally shot himself.
On Sunday afternoon, at the scene where the man was found, police followed the trail of blood back to his car, where they discovered an arsenal of weapons and documents proving his plan to attack one or two churches. After checking the man’s home, police found more automatic weapons, bulletproof vests, several police armbands and even a Sig-Sauer police pistol.
A woman, Aurélie Chatelian, was found murdered in Villejuif, a suburb in Paris, that same day. Ms. Chatelian, a fitness instructor and mother of a 5-year-old girl, was in Paris for a professional training program. While the motive behind killing this woman is not 100 percent clear, the Algerian man is suspected to have been involved in her murder. Traces of his DNA were found at the scene of the crime. It is believed that he was attempting to hijack her car and her courageous resistance is what led to his injury.
This attack was not random. The Algerian man was known as an Islamic radical who had previously expressed wishes to travel to Syria to join jihadis there. Earlier, in February of 2015, the man traveled to Turkey for a week.
On his way back from Turkey he was briefly detained and questioned, but the French authorities did not view him as a large enough threat to take more action, and he was released with a warning. Turkey is a known connection point for individuals wishing to go to Syria to join Islamic State.
Recently there have been more and more cases of teens and young adults leaving their homes in an attempt to join terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State. While nations should certainly be concerned with young adults leaving, this incident also demonstrated a need to closely monitor youth who are trying to re-enter a country from known entry points to Syria and Iraq, such as Turkey.
This attack may be an indication of an evolving strategy by Islamic State to use jihadists who have yet to make it all the way to Syria. Someone who was only in Turkey briefly before returning may be able to fly under the radar more than someone who went all the way to Syria before trying to return. These young adults can be used to carry out attacks in their home countries.
We have seen several examples of this, such as the two women in New York who were found with a plot to detonate bombs in the United States in early April, 2015. Not only do countries need to be wary of people flying to entry points for Syria and Iraq, but also of people coming back from them.
