Larossi Abballa, the 25-year-old French jihadist who killed a police couple near Paris before being shot dead by officers, used Facebook Live during the attack to pledge allegiance to the Islamic State group.
Abballa, using an account under the name “Mohamed Ali”, started broadcasting at 8:52 p.m. on Monday, about 20 minutes after he stabbed a police couple to death at the home of the victims in Magnanville, which is about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Paris.
In the 13-minute video, Abballa pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and called on jihadists to carry out attacks on police, journalists, and public figures. He also threatened attacks on the UEFA European Championship, which is currently taking place at various venues across France.
At one point in the video, which was recorded on a mobile phone as special police forces responded to the scene, Abballa said he was not sure yet what to do with the couple’s 3-year-old son, who was later found unharmed
Several hours after the video was recorded, after negotiations failed and Abballa threatened to blow himself up, police forces stormed the building and killed Abballa.
The video remained online for hours until it was removed by Facebook on early Tuesday morning, but the recording was later posted online by the Islamic State-affiliated news agency Amaq, which had already claimed responsibility for the attack.
The two victims of the attack have been identified as 42-year-old police commander Jean-Baptiste Salvaing and his wife, 36-year-old Jessica Schneider, who worked as an administration worker at a local police station.
(Copyright 2015 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: sales@bnonews.com.)
