A standoff involving hundreds of French police officers and one terror suspect continues outside an apartment in Toulouse. Authorities confirm 23-year-old Mohammed Merah, a French citizen of Algerian decent who is suspected of killing 7 people in three shootings, has been holed up in his apartment since officers attempted to raid his apartment around 3:30 a.m. this morning. Merah fired at officers as they tried to break down his door. Two officers were wounded.
Police surrounded the apartment after the brief exchange of gunfire. They have been communicating with Merah ever since. At one point he promised to surrender, but then stopped talking to authorities.
Merah claims to have been trained by al Qaeda militants in Pakistan. French authorities have been monitoring him for several years and believe he carried out three shootings over the past ten days in or around Toulouse. The most recent shooting occurred Tuesday morning outside the Jewish school Ozar Hatorah. Four people, including a rabbi and three young children, were killed. The two other shootings left three paratroopers dead.
Investigators tracked down Merah through a computer IP address that he used to find the first shooting victim. Merah used the computer to set up a meeting with the paratrooper under the guise of wanting to buy the soldier’s scooter.
###
Click here for more World News
