French police officers have surrounded the home of a man who is suspected of killing three children and a rabbi in a Jewish school on Monday, as well as three paratroopers in southern France last week. The 24-year-old claims connections to Al-Qaeda.
At least two police officers were injured in the raid, French Interior Minister Claude Gueant said. According to Gueant, the suspect is a French national of Algerian decent.
He reportedly wants “to take revenge for Palestinian children killed in the Middle East” and “to attack the French army because of its foreign interventions.”
Claude Gueant said that the 24-year-old had made several visits to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“He claims to be a Mujahideen and to belong to Al-Qaeda,” Gueant told journalists at the scene of the siege.
Police are negotiating with the suspect. His mother was brought to the scene, but she says she has little influence on him.
Law enforcers are preparing for a second assault on the premises.
The man’s brother was arrested earlier on Wednesday at a separate location in connection with the killings.
Authorities believe that the gunman in Monday’s school shooting is the same person responsible for killing three soldiers of North African origin last week in Toulouse and the nearby town of Montauban.
The same Colt 45 handgun was used in all three attacks and in each case the gunman arrived on a Yamaha scooter with his face hidden by a motorcycle helmet.
A teacher and three students were killed in Toulouse on Monday when a man opened fire on parents and children waiting outside a school.
A French military airplane carried the bodies of the four victims to Israel on Wednesday morning where the victims are set to be buried.