Two days ago, a gunman attacked a high-speed train in France. He was suspected to be connected with an Islamist Militant and labelled as a terrorist. However, Sophie David, his attorney, told CNN on Sunday that her client only intended to rob the train, not plan a massacre.
David told BFMTV that she saw "somebody who was very sick, somebody very weakened physically, as if he suffered from malnutrition, very, very thin and very haggard". David said he was planning to feed himself by armed robbery by getting on a train that some other homeless people told him to be full of wealthy people travelling from Amsterdam to Paris. He also added that he had not thought he had fired any shot before the gun jammed. However authorities thought otherwise. He had an AK-47 assault weapon with nine magazines, a Luger pistol with extra ammo and a box cutter according to French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve. The suspect had clearly stated his intention given the weapons he carried with him.
According to Telegraph, French authorities have identified him as a 26-year old Moroccan Named Ayoub el Khazzani. His DNA was on file with Spanish authorities. He emigrated from Morocco in 2013 and moved to Spain living with his parents in the town of Algeciras. Allegedly, he was known as a suspected Islamist militant according to intelligence services of all three European countries where he resided. More so, he was also reported to have been convicted for drug offenses and have spent some jail time in Spain.
He was later released and moved to France in March last year. Paul Cruickshank, a senior European counterterrorism official told CNN that there are indications that he has travelled from Europe to Turkey between May and July, probably trying to hook up with ISIS in Syria. ISIS operatives are using Turkey as a base, he added, so as to redirect attacks back home.
On a lighter note, four brave men will be honoured by the French Government for averting the supposedly terrorism attache. A fight broke out when four men grabbed the suspect and fought him free of his weapons. The struggle left Spencer Stone, a U.S. Air Force member, with wounds in the head and neck and his thumb nearly cut off. Fellow childhood friends, Anthony Sadler and Alek Skarlatos alongside Brittish passenger, Chris Norman, will be awarded with the French Legion of Honor on Monday. President Francois Hollande will honour the three Americans and a Brittish national with the nation's highest recognition. This award was first established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 to recognize exceptional leaders and unusual achievements.
