According to French President Francois Hollande, the Normandy area church terrorist attack that left a priest dead, a nun fighting for her own life and five people taken hostage was carried out in the name of ISIS earlier this morning.
Hollande spoke to reporters on Tuesday at the site of the attack in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray saying the terrorist attack was carried out by “two terrorists in the name of Daesh.” Daesh is another name for ISIS.
One of the terrorists, a 19 year-old man had an electric tag on him and was being monitored after attempting to join fanatics in Syria, but was turned back and deported to France. His bail terms allowed him to be unsupervised between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. The attack occurred between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. French authorities said that a third man was arrested in connection with the terrorist attack.
Jacques Hamel, an 86 year-old priest had his throat slit, to the point of his head nearly coming off, after one of the terrorists stormed the church and began shouting “Allahu Akbar.” According to a witness, the terrorists filmed themselves slitting the throat of the priest performing a “sermon in Arabic” at the altar.
Besides killing the priest, they held two church-goers and two nuns hostage.
As the two terrorists left the building, they were killed by marksmen.
In a statement by ISIS affiliated Amaq News Agency, ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack saying that it was carried out by “two soldiers of the Islamic State,” and was in response to the U.S.-led coalition fighting against ISIS.
This morning it was found that the church was being targeted and was on an ISIS “hit list.”
According to a French intelligence source, the attacker was radicalized by the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris.
French Interior Ministry spokesman, Pierre Henry Brandet told reporters that one of the hostages is “between life and death.”
Hollande said to reporters, “Daesh has declared war on us. We have to win that war.”
Neither of the terrorists involved have been named yet.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls tweeted that he was “horrified by the barbaric attack,” and said that “we will stand together.”
Pope Francis condemned the terrorist attack as a “barbarous killing.” because it happened in a sacred place.
[revad2]
