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2012 Midi-Pyrénées shootings
Toulouse and Montauban shootings is located in FranceToulouseToulouse MontaubanMontaubanLocation of Toulouse and Montauban, France
LocationMidi-Pyrénées region, France :
Date11 March 2012 (2012-03-11) –
22 March 2012 (2012-03-22)
TargetFrench soldiers and Jewish civilians
Attack typeShootings
WeaponsM1911 pistol
Deaths8 (4 civilians, 3 soldiers; perpetrator)
Injured5
PerpetratorMohammed Merah

The 2012 Midi-Pyrénées shootings were a series of three gun attacks targeting French soldiers and Jewish civilians, in the cities of Montauban and Toulouse in the Midi-Pyrénées region of France. In total, seven people were killed, plus the perpetrator, and five others were injured; four seriously. Police identified the perpetrator as a 23-year-old French Muslim named Mohammed Merah, who claimed ties to Islamist militant group al-Qaeda, although this relationship is disputed. During a siege and gun battle, on 22 March, the perpetrator was shot and killed by the special operations tactical unit of the French police RAID.

The first attack occurred on 11 March, when a French paratrooper, Master Sergeant Imad Ibn-Ziaten, also a French Muslim, was shot dead outside of a gym in Toulouse. The second occurred on 15 March, during which two uniformed soldiers, Corporal Abel Chennouf, and Private Mohamed Legouad, were killed and another seriously injured in a shopping center in Montauban. On 19 March, a further attack occurred at the Ozar Hatorah Jewish day school, where four people (including three children) were killed. The gunman fled on a motor scooter.

Following the shooting, the French government raised Vigipirate, France's terror alert, in the Midi-Pyrénées region, and a couple of surrounding departements, to its highest possible level. Many governments around the world condemned the attacks.

Attacks

The shootings were connected and were perpetrated by Mohammed Merah (see below). The authorities determined that all of the attacks involved the same weapon, a .45 pistol. In all three attacks, the helmeted shooter arrived and left on the same stolen scooter.

Two of the three killed soldiers were Muslims.

11 March: Paratrooper in Toulouse

On 11 March, Master Sergeant Imad Ibn-Ziaten, aged 30, an off-duty paratrooper in the 1st Parachute Logistics Regiment (1er régiment du train parachutiste) was killed when he was shot in the head at point-blank range outside a gym in Toulouse. At the time Ibn-Ziaten was waiting to meet someone who had claimed to be interested in buying a motorcycle from him; however, it is suspected that the supposed buyer attacked him instead. The perpetrator was described as wearing a helmet and riding a motorcycle.

15 March: Two paratroopers in Montauban

On Thursday, 15 March, at around 14:00, two uniformed soldiers were killed and a third was seriously injured outside a shopping centre in Montauban, around 50 km north of Toulouse, while withdrawing money from a cash machine. They were all from the 17th Parachute Engineer Regiment (17e régiment du génie parachutiste), whose barracks are close to the town. Corporal Abel Chennouf, 24, and Private Mohamed Legouad, 23, both of North African origin, were killed. Corporal Loïc Liber, 28, from Guadeloupe, was left in a coma. The killer was on a moped and wore a black helmet, according to security cameras. It is reported that an elderly woman, who was waiting to withdraw money from the cash machine, was pushed aside by the killer while he was taking aim.

19 March: Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse

The type of scooter used in the shootings, a Yamaha TMAX

Background

The Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse is part of a national chain of at least twenty Jewish schools throughout France, educating children of primarily Sephardic, Middle Eastern and North African descent. The school is a middle and secondary school, with most children in the age range of 11 to 17 years, and it is also a transportation hub for other schools. Many parents bring their younger children to Ozar Hatorah, and place them on shuttle buses that travel to the other schools in the area.

Shootings

At about 8:00 AM, a man drove up to the Ozar Hatorah school on a Yamaha TMAX. He dismounted, and immediately opened fire toward the schoolyard. The first victim was a rabbi and teacher at the school who was shot outside the school gates as he tried to shield his two young sons from the gunman. The gunman shot one of the boys as he crawled away, as his father and brother lay dying on the pavement. He then walked into the schoolyard, chasing people into the building. Inside, he shot at staff, parents, and students. The killer chased a 7-year-old girl into the courtyard, caught her by her hair and raised a gun to shoot her. The gun jammed at this point and Merah changed weapons from what the police identified as a 9-mm pistol to a .45 calibre gun, and shot the girl in her temple at point-blank range. The gunman then retrieved his moped and drove off.

Police cordoned off and evacuated the area. School security was increased in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. Many Jewish institutions were already under continuous protection, but as a result of this act of terrorism, streets in France that have Jewish institutions on them were closed to traffic. The President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, as well as other candidates in the presidential elections, immediately traveled to Toulouse and to the school and the election campaign was suspended. Sarkozy called for a minute of silence in all schools the following day.

Victims

Four people died, including 30-year-old Rabbi Jonathan (Yonatan) Sandler, his two oldest (out of three) children Aryeh, aged 6, and Gabriel, aged 3; and the head teacher's daughter, eight-year-old Miriam Monsonego, who was shot in the head at point-blank range. Bryan Bijaoui, a 17-year-old Jewish boy, was gravely injured. A .45 round passed through the boy's left arm and then right through his torso, skimming his heart and puncturing his lungs and stomach. It was the worst school-related attack in French history.

The bodies of all four dead were flown out on 20 March from Toulouse to Paris and subsequently from Paris to Israel, accompanied by French foreign minister Alain Juppé, where they were buried by family members at the Har HaMenuchot cemetery in Jerusalem. The two deceased children of Sandler were dual French-Israeli citizens, as are Sandler's widow and surviving child.

Reactions

"Mourning" flags of the European Union, France and Midi-Pyrénées on the Capitole de Toulouse after the attacks.

The attacks were condemned by many governments around the world. The French Council of the Muslim Faith also condemned the attacks.

In a speech to Palestinian youths at an UNRWA event, the European Union's High Representative Baroness Ashton said, "When we think about what happened today in Toulouse, we remember what happened in Norway a year ago, when we know what is happening in Syria, and we see what is happening in Gaza and Sderot and in different parts of the world – we remember young people and children who lose their lives." Israeli ministers harshly criticised her comparison of the Toulouse murders to the situation in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "It is unthinkable to compare a massacre and the Israeli army’s surgical, defensive actions against those who use children as human shields." Lady Ashton said that the press reporting of her speech was "grossly distorted" and that had she also referenced Israeli victims in Sderot, but this had been incorrectly omitted from the original transcript.

Mohammed Merah

Mohammed Merah
Born(1988-10-10)10 October 1988
Toulouse, France
Died22 March 2012(2012-03-22) (aged 23)
Toulouse, France
CitizenshipFrance
OccupationMechanic
ParentZoulika Aziri (mother)

Mohammed Merah (Template:Lang-ar; 10 October 1988 – 22 March 2012) was identified as the gunman in the shootings. He was a Muslim French citizen, born to French parents of Algerian descent.

Earlier life

Merah has two brothers and two sisters. He was known to French authorities because he had traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan. He was unemployed at the time of the shootings, after having worked as a coachbuilder. Merah had a long record as a juvenile delinquent with 15 convictions, according to a regional French prosecutor. First arrested in 2005, he served two short prison terms in 2007 and 2009. His convictions reportedly included thefts and driving offences.

In 2008 he tried to join the army but was rejected. Then in 2010 he went to the recruitment center of the Foreign Legion, stayed overnight but decided to leave before he could be evaluated.

According to Merah's lawyer, he was sentenced to a month in prison on 24 February after driving without a driver's licence, and was due before the judge again in April.

The French newspaper JDD reported after speaking to his friends, that he was seen as a "nice guy" who "got on well with everyone". French media reported that a couple of years ago he had forced a neighbour's boy to watch bloody videos from Afghanistan and then beat up the boy's sister after the mother objected. One of his friends said that Merah had been seen in a Toulouse night club three weeks before the attacks.

Manhunt

Departements where Vigipirate terror alert was raised to its highest level.

The killings spurred one of the biggest manhunts in modern French history. The police erected roadblocks across Toulouse and placed extra security outside Jewish and Islamic schools across France. Because of the ethnic identities of the victims, most of whom were of Jewish or Arab descent, police initially suspected the involvement of neo-Nazis. Since he drew little attention to himself otherwise, police faced an uphill struggle in focusing in on Merah as a suspect, even as the killings continued. Merah had taken care to ensure that the magazine and shell casings he left offered no fingerprints or DNA. However, the search for Sergeant Ibn Ziaten's bogus motorbike buyer was homing in on the Merahs' computer, as cross-checks revealed that the Toulouse woman who owned the IP address had two sons on the anti-terrorism watchlist. The hunt for the gunman's scooter also took a decisive turn when Merah asked a motorcycle mechanic in Toulouse about removing a GPS anti-theft tracking device on his bike. Merah also said that he had just repainted the bike white. It had previously been black.

Siege and death

Around 01:00 on 21 March 2012, Merah telephoned France 24, telling a journalist that he had filmed the murders and that he had posted the footage online. He said that he was connected with al Qaeda and that what he had done was only the beginning. He said that he was motivated by France's ban on wearing the Burka and that "the Jews have killed our brothers and sisters in Palestine." At 03:00 local time (02:00 UTC), the French police tried to arrest Merah at his apartment on Sergent Vigné Street in the Côte Pavée neighborhood. Merah shot at the police through the door, injuring three police officers in the process.

The R.A.I.D., an elite anti-terrorist unit, surrounded the 1960s five-storey block of flats soon after. Merah was armed with an AK-47, an Uzi, and several handguns. Further weapons were found in a rented Renault Megane parked near the apartment building. The five-story building block and nearby buildings were evacuated and the police turned powerful spotlights onto Merah's building in an attempt to blind him and prevent him from observing the police operations. The electricity and gas supplies were cut off to the apartment block and the street lights in the neighbourhood were switched off. Merah exchanged a Colt 45 for a walkie-talkie which was used to communicate with the police. He told them the location for a bag containing the blood-spattered camera that he had used to film his attacks. One of Merah's brothers was arrested, and another handed himself into custody. Police found weapons and explosives in his brother's car. His mother was brought to the scene to help with negotiations, but she refused to become involved, due to her lack of influence on him. Merah informed the police that he intended to give himself up at 10.45pm. Contact was established with him at that time but Merah then said that he would not succumb without a fight and would kill policemen if necessary. In the late evening on 21 March, blasts were heard at the apartment block which were intended to intimidate the gunman into surrendering." The police blew off the window shutters with a grenade, after which two shots were heard. After that there was no response from the Merah until 11am the next day. The police continued the explosions at regular intervals, in an effort to wear down Merah. Officers did not know if Merah was alive as he did not respond to the series of explosions on during the night and on Thursday morning.

At 10.30 on 22 March, the decision was taken to arrest him. Grenades were thrown into the apartment but elicited no response. A 15-strong team of specially trained officers decided to enter the flat first by the door, then using the windows whose shutters had been removed during the night. The team deployed technical devices and video equipment to inspect the different rooms. No presence was detected until a device was introduced into the bathroom. At that point the killer emerged shooting long and frequent bursts. The officers returned fire and snipers opposite attempted to neutralise him. Mohammed Merah then jumped out of the window with weapon in hand and continued to shoot. Merah was shot in the head by a police sniper, and he was found dead on the ground.

Less than one hour later it was announced to media in Toulouse that Merah was dead. Merah's death was later confirmed by Sarkozy. AFP reported that three police officers had been injured in the preceding gunfire, one of whom sustained "fairly serious" wounds. It was discovered that Merah had a bulletproof vest, components of Molotov cocktails and weapons parts stockpiled inside his flat.

Motivation

Merah claimed to be a member of al-Qaeda and said that his motives for the attacks were for the honor of Islam, to avenge the deaths of Palestinian children (by attacking the Jewish school) and to attack the French army for its involvement in Afghanistan. He boasted to police negotiators on Wednesday night that he had "brought France to its knees". He said that his only regret was not having been able to execute more killings. He was antagonised by the French ban on face covering. Merah filmed all of his murders using a GoPro camera strapped to his body and according to the French prosecutor, he can be heard saying "you killed my brothers, I kill you", and "Allahu Akbar" during the executions.

Aftermath

President Sarkozy proposed a new law that would imprison those who repeatedly visit websites promoting terror or hatred. According to The Times of India, legal experts are concerned that such a law could curtail freedom of speech. Reporters Without Borders accused Sarkozy of trying to create an internet surveillance system.

Some of the French media questioned the role of the security services during the operation and whether more could have been done to prevent the killings. Many Jewish children in France have been afraid to go to school since the shootings and Jewish teenagers reported fears of dressing in a recognisably Jewish manner. The media reported calls by some Israeli politicians for French Jews to emigrate to Israel to escape the anti-Semitism in France. Many French Jews have expressed mixed feelings about such a move.

Following Merah's death, an English teacher from Rouen asked her students for a moment of silence and called Merah a "victim". The French education minister Luc Chatel called for suspension and disciplinary proceedings against her.

References

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