Monthly Archives: March 2012

Need to Know: March 23, 2012

Need to Know: March 22, 2012

Need to Know: March 21, 2012

ThreatStream: Tracking French Shooting Suspect Mohammed Merah – al-Qaeda – Forsane Alizza in France

merah1 ThreatStream: Tracking French Shooting Suspect Mohammed Merah   al Qaeda   Forsane Alizza in France

The latest from the BBC:

Mohammed Merah, the man believed to be the gunman on a scooter who killed seven people in south-western France, is a 23-year-old French citizen of Algerian extraction.

Before the shootings in Toulouse and Montauban, he was brought to French attention because of visits he made to Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he reportedly escaped from prison while serving a sentence for carrying bomb-making equipment.

He was also known to the French authorities because he had a criminal record for non-terrorist crimes.

Police surrounded him at a block of flats in Toulouse after the shootings, in which three French soldiers and a rabbi and three Jewish children were killed.

According to the French authorities, he said he had sought to avenge Palestinian children and to attack the French army because of its foreign interventions.

I have created a Mohammed Merah ThreatStream to track this developing story from three angles:

  • Mohammed Merah – Tweets and news stories about the suspect.
  • al-Qaeda in France – Content referencing the shooter’s alleged connections or sympathies.
  • Forsane Alizza – The shooter is reportedly a member of this radical group. More on them here.

You may find the Terrorism and al-Qaeda focused ThreatStreams useful as well.

Need to Know: March 20, 2012