France terrorist attack suspect linked to ISIL, prosecutor says
A French prosecutor says the man who beheaded his employer in a recent terrorist attack in France has had links to the Takfiri ISIL terrorist group.
Paris chief prosecutor Francois Molins confirmed Tuesday that Yassin Salhi, who beheaded his manager and tried to blow up a gas factory near Lyon, France’s third largest city, had a "terrorist motive."
Salhi's act of terror on June 26 was "precisely" in line with ISIL extremist acts, the prosecutor stated.
"This corresponds very precisely to the orders of Daesh (ISIL) which calls regularly for acts of terrorism on French soil and in particular to cut the throats of unbelievers. The decapitation recalls the habitual modus operandi of this terrorist organization," Molins said.
The 35-year-old suspect was detained on the same day of the attack, where he rammed his gas-filled delivery van into a shed containing gas cylinders, triggering an explosion. The decapitated body was found nearby.
Salhi beheaded his 54-year-old boss before he drove to the US-owned Air Products factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier near Lyon. He has confessed to carrying out the attack.
Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre, a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor’s office, earlier said that the suspect began speaking to investigators after initially refusing to do so.
"Salhi decapitated his victim; he hung the head on a fence to get maximum publicity, as he told us during interrogation."
Right after beheading his victim, the suspect sent a macabre "selfie" photo of himself and the victim's head to his French comrades who have joined the ranks of ISIL in Syria. Salhi was in "regular contact" with the French militant Sebastian Yunis, known to have left for Syria last November.
JR/HSN/HMV
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