This time, the terrorist did not use firearms; his victims were not unarmed children, cartoonists or Jews but policemen.
The site of the October 3 attack was also striking: “The interior of the Paris police headquarters is supposed to be a stronghold; it is the symbol of public order in France and of the anti-jihadist struggle that has been shaken,” the French scholar Gilles Kepel told Le Figaro.
“We have entered a… terrorism made in France… with a mixture of Friday preaching by extremist imams, social networks and the instrumentalization of fragile individuals. It is about creating a new panic in society by targeting iconic … places… The attack is a major turning point in Islamist terrorism.”
The assailant, Mickaël Harpon, born in the French Caribbean island of Martinique, was shot and killed after stabbing four people to death with a ceramic kitchen knife during the lunchtime assault at the Paris police headquarters. Harpon, a civilian IT specialist in the intelligence division holding high-level security clearance, had worked for the police for 16 years. First he killed three men in the intelligence division, then he stabbed two female police employees in a stairwell (one died from her wounds) before he finally was shot and killed in the building’s courtyard.
Harpon was a longtime convert to Islam and a conscientious attendee of his local mosque, where he attended morning and evening prayers. A radical imam who was nearly expelled from France officiated there.
[…]
See Also:
(1) Brexit to spark EU revolt? UK ‘stepped in EU’s bear traps’ paving way for others to leave
(2) Ordinary voters back Boris and Brexit
(3) EU diplomats fear rise in Euroscepticism after not giving the public enough, says expert
(4) European super trawler a threat to UK fishing warns MEP – ‘They’re going to take it all!’
(5) Sadiq Khan savaged over Extinction Rebellion chaos after London protests paralyse city
