There are conflicting reports this morning about whether a gunman suspected of killing seven people in the name of al-Qaeda, including three children at a Jewish school, has been arrested by police.
Local media reported the 12-hour siege in southwestern France had ended in the arrest of the suspect, identified as Mohamed Merah. Those reports have now been denied by the French Interior Minister and President Nicolas Sarkozy is expected to speak to the nation shortly
About 300 police, some in bullet-proof body armor, have cordoned off an area surrounding a four-storey house in a leafy suburb of the city of Toulouse where the 24-year-old Muslim man had been holed up on the ground floor.
Officials at the scene have not confirmed the arrest or released details of how he was detained. A police source had said earlier that authorities would not allow the siege to drag on indefinitely.
Merah had been arrested for bomb making in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar in 2007 but escaped months later in a Taliban prison break, the director of prisons in Kandahar said.
Merah, a French citizen of Algerian origin, was suspected of killing seven people in the name of al Qaeda, including three children at a Jewish school in southwestern France.
Kandahar prison chief Ghulam Faruq said that security forces detained Merah on Dec. 19, 2007, and he was sentenced to three years in jail for planting bombs in Kandahar province, the Taliban’s birthplace.
Merah escaped jail along with up to 1,000 prisoners, including 400 Taliban insurgents, during a Taliban attack on southern Afghanistan’s main prison in June 2008.
Looks like I even knew his name somehow. How do you imagine I knew his name without even knowing his name?
I must be psychic right :)
Yours was one of the dumbest posts in a long time.
You are indeed a psychotic.