The Daily Mail, UK
written by Julian Robinson and Gareth Davies and Peter Allen in Paris and AFP staff
Friday March 23, 2018
The ISIS fanatic shot dead by police in France after he killed three people in a gun rampage and supermarket siege has been pictured for the first time.
The lone extremist, armed with a gun, knives and a grenade, hijacked a car, shot its passenger in the head and fired at police officers in Carcassonne, south west France, before driving to a Super U shop in Trebes and taking hostages.
After screaming 'Allahu Akbar, I'll kill you all', the Moroccan Islamist, named as 26-year-old Lakdim, killed a butcher and a shopper while terrified customers either fled from the store or hid in a cold room.
During the siege, during which 16 people were wounded and two seriously hurt, Lakdim demanded the release of Salah Abdeslam, 28, the last surviving suspect in the 2015 ISIS attack in Paris that left 130 dead.
But after an hours-long standoff, special police units converged on the scene and stormed the supermarket, where 50 people had been shopping when the attack began.
President Emmanuel Macron this afternoon called Lakdim's rampage a 'terrorist act', the first to hit France since he became leader in May.
French investigators said the man was known to intelligence services and had been flagged in a database of radicalised militants. His home was raided today and a neighbour said she had seen Lakdim 'taking one of his younger sisters to school' before he launched his attack.
It has emerged that a French military officer took the place of a supermarket hostage, entering the danger zone as the drama unfolded. The 45-year-old lieutenant-colonel named as Arnaud Beltrame, who is now fighting for his life in hospital, left his mobile phone on a table so police could hear what was happening.
Through that phone, police heard gunshots inside the building and decided that elite forces had to storm the market, killing Lakdim.
The woman who lived with the gunman has been detained for questioning, the country's top anti-terror prosecutor has said.
Speaking in Carcassonne, Francois Molins said gunman Radouane Lakdim had claimed to be a soldier of ISIS before he was killed by police.
This afternoon, ISIS claimed responsibility for the shooting spree, saying one of its 'soldiers' had acted 'in response to calls to attack Coalition countries'. It was referring to the U.S.-led coalition that has been carrying out airstrikes against ISIS in Syria and Iraq since 2014. France is part of that coalition.
Interior minister Gerard Collomb said the attacker was Redouane Lakdim, 26, who lived with his parents and his four sisters in a flat on a council estate in Carcassonne, a town that is a UN World Heritage site and a major French tourist attraction
It was raided on Friday early in the afternoon, where a neighbour said she had seen Lakdim 'taking one of his younger sisters to school on Friday morning'.
Lakdim was subject to an S-file, which means the intelligence services considered him a security threat. He spent a short time in prison in 2016.
Collomb said Lakdim was not considered a terror threat - despite earlier reports.
'He was known by the police for petty crimes, we had monitored him and did not think he had been radicalised,' Collomb said after arriving at the scene of the hostage-taking in the town of Trebes, near Carcassonne.
'He was already under surveillance when he suddenly decided to act,' he said.
One of those killed in the attack was Portuguese, the nation's government confirmed.
Miguel Silva, head of the department that deals with Portuguese ex-pats, said: 'The death of a Portuguese citizen has been confirmed... by French authorities to our consular services.'
The gunman had earlier held up a car in the nearby city of Carcassone, killing a passenger and then firing six shots at police officers, all members of the city's CRS 57 unit wearing athletic clothes with police insignia. Shouting 'vengeance for Syria', he injured one officer, before driving off towards the supermarket where he held several hostages. The injured officer is not in life-threatening condition.
Forensic officers were combing the scene of the massacre on Friday afternoon and set up a cordon in the supermarket car park around a white Opel Corsa, thought to be in some way linked to the gumnan. It has not been made clear whether this was the car hijacked by Redouane Lakdim.
Police traced the car involved in the shooting in Carcassonne to the hostage-taking in Trebes after it was found in the car park of the supermarket, a security source told AFP.
Eric Menassi, the mayor of Trebes, confirmed that 'a supermarket worker was shot dead' and a CRS officer 'wounded in the shoulder'.
Carole, who was shopping at the supermarket, described how people had taken refuge in a cold room.
'A man shouted and fired several times. I saw a cold room door, I asked people to come and take shelter,' she told Franceinfo radio. 'We were ten, and we stayed an hour. There were more gunshots and we went out the back door.'
Another customer in the supermarket in southern France that was taken over by a gunman describes the assailant as a 'very agitated man shouting several times 'Allahu akbar''.
Christian Guibbert told reporters: 'We heard an explosion, well, several explosions.
'So I went to see what was happening and I saw a man lying on the floor and another person, very agitated, who had a gun in one hand and a knife in the other one.'
Guibbert said he had sought shelter with his wife, sister-in-law and other customers into the butchery's refrigerator.
Then he went back into the supermarket's main room and walked toward the assailant, calling police and describing the situation.
He says the suspect 'ran after me'.
Guibbert escaped out an emergency market door as elite police forces arrived to storm the building.
A security source, said: 'Most of the Super U staff and customers managed to get away.'
Local media reported that Lakdim was demanding the release of Salah Abdeslam - the prime surviving suspect in the ISIS attacks that killed 130 people in Paris in 2015.
Abdeslam, a French citizen born and raised in Brussels, went on trial in Belgium last month. He is accused of 'attempted murder in a terrorist context' over a Brussels shootout in March 2016, four months after he fled Paris on the night of the carnage during which his brother was among the suicide bombers.
Helicopters could be seen circling over Trebes today, a picturesque medieval town of around 5,000 people, while heavily armed police had closed down roads surrounding the supermarket.
As the drama unfolded this morning, police led the hostage-taker's mother, who lives in Carcassonne, to the supermarket in an effort to persuade him to give-up.
'She's gone to talk to him - to try and get him to drop his weapons, and give up,' said a source at the scene. 'His sister is there too.'
This was a tactic used by the authorities in 1994 when Armed Islamic Group terrorists hijacked an Air France plane in Algiers, the capital of Algeria, and wanted to fly it to Paris to crash into the Eiffel Tower.
The leader of the hijackers disobeyed his mother - who spoke to him through a loudspeaker - and carried on with the terrorist attack. France's GIGN was involved, and it ended with the deaths of all four hijackers, and three passengers, with the plane only getting as far as Marseille.
Meanwhile a French policeman who was shot by the Islamist after swapping himself for a hostage has been hailed as a hero.
The Geller Report
intro written and news shared by Pamela Geller
Saturday March 24, 2018
Brigitte Bardot is a national treasure. Despite relentless persecution by the French government for sharia-speech violations, Bardot continues to speak truth to Islamic power. France’s iconic blonde bombshell has been on trial five times for Islamo-criticism and “inciting racial hatred” (Islam is not a race).
And still she speaks out.
“‘I didn’t fight against French Algeria to accept an Algerian France’: Bardot slams modern-day France,”
RT, March 19, 2018:
French actress Brigitte Bardot has spoken out against the state of her country, saying that Islamists are “practically everywhere” and that France should not resemble Algeria.
Speaking to the French weekly Valeurs Actuelles, Bardot said that France is not what it once was. “I have been brought up in honor, patriotism, love and respect for my country, and when I see what it has become, I feel desperate,” she said.
The 83-year-old also said that it is “unacceptable” to see burqas become commonplace in France, and Islamists are “practically everywhere.”
“I did not fight against French Algeria to accept an Algerian France, I do not touch the culture, the identity and the customs of others, let’s not touch mine,” Bardot said.
The former actress didn’t mince her words when it came to her thoughts on the European Union either. “We have to get out of it,” she said. Bardot added that she is a supporter of right-wing National Front politician Marine Le Pen, who has also spoken out against France’s membership in the EU. She went on to note her affinity for former French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, who she described as a “good guy.”
Born in 1934, Bardot was one of the best-known sex symbols of the 1950s and 1960s…..
Jihad Watch
intro written and news shared by Robert Spencer
Tuesday March 27, 2018
He was condemned by his party leadership and expelled from the party, but only because he got caught. There is no doubt, given the state of the international Left today, that many others in his party, and Leftists in general, share his sentiments.
“Trèbes attack: French left-winger arrested over tweet hailing gendarme’s death,”
BBC, March 25, 2018:
A former French left-wing parliamentary candidate has been arrested over his tweets about a policeman killed during a jihadist siege in southern France last week.
Stéphane Poussier appeared to celebrate the death of Lt-Col Arnaud Beltrame, saying it was great.
He added that the death in the town of Trèbes meant one less voter for President Emmanuel Macron.
French media say he could be charged with apologising for terrorism.
Mr Poussier’s Twitter account has since been deleted. It is unclear if this action was taken by him or the platform, after the tweets caused an outcry and were reported by other social media users.
The ex-candidate said the death made him think of a friend, activist Remi Fraisse, who died after police threw a concussion grenade during protests in 2014.
Col Beltrame, 44, died after being shot when a jihadist stormed a supermarket in Trèbes on Friday….
Friday’s attack – which killed four people – was the worst jihadist attack under Emmanuel Macron’s presidency.
The maximum penalty for apology for terrorist acts is seven years in prison and a fine of €100,000 (£90,000; $120,000), according to Le Monde newspaper.
Stéphane Poussier stood as a candidate for La France Insoumise (France Unbowed), the far-left party led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, during legislative elections in 2017.
The party has expelled Mr Poussier, calling his tweets “shameful and abject”…
