PARIS — In a video released by the Islamic State group and recorded in the suburban Paris home of his victims, a former jihadi recruiter confessed to killing a police officer and his female companion and listed other prominent people he planned to target.
The attack late Monday touched already raw nerves. It recalled elements of the Orlando, Florida, killings at a gay nightclub days earlier, and revived French concerns about the ISIS threat after the group targeted Paris in November, killing 130 people. A state of emergency is still in place, and 90,000 security forces are now deployed to protect the European Championship soccer tournament taking place across France.
On Tuesday, French President Francois Hollande urged heightened vigilance after what he said was “incontestably a terrorist act.”
The video reflects a pattern within ISIS of individuals pledging allegiance and then staging attacks that the extremist group calls its own – and the violence shows the group’s continued ability to attract followers despite being under attack in Syria, Iraq and Libya.
It was as surprising as it was bloody.
The suspect, Larossi Abballa, a 25-year-old Frenchman once convicted of jihadi recruitment for Pakistan, staked out off-duty police commander Jean-Baptiste Savaing and stabbed him in front of his house in the suburb of Magnanville, about 35 miles west of Paris, according to police.
Abballa then entered Savaing’s house and stabbed his female companion, a 36-year-old police administrator in the attacker’s hometown, then took their 3-year-old son hostage, Prosecutor Francois Molins said. For about three hours, police surrounded the building as Abballa first made demands – and then apparently made the video.
About an hour after the video was posted on Facebook, police stormed the house, killing Abballa and rescuing the child, Molins told reporters.
Abballa’s Facebook page was taken down, but the Islamic State group’s Amaq news agency later released the video, which appears to have been filmed inside the couple’s home.
“I just killed a police officer and his wife,” he says, adding: “The police are currently surrounding me.” He then listed other planned targets, including rappers, journalists, police officers and police officials.
Unusually, the video was edited. The victims do not appear.
The timing may not have been coincidental: The killings came after ISIS urged supporters to carry out attacks in Europe or America during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is currently underway.
Salvaing was 42. His companion has not been identified.
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