22.03.2012, 18:53:01

French special forces in Toulouse after the completion of the operation. Photo by Reuters

Through the window in the bathroom

Toulouse terrorist killed by riot police after 24-hour siege

The siege of a house in Toulouse continued for more than a day, where the terrorist Mohammed Merah, who had previously killed seven people - three military personnel, three students of a Jewish school and their teacher - barricaded himself. The police planned to take Mer alive, so they did not storm the building right away. On the morning of March 22, when, after several hours of silence from the terrorist, the police decided to check whether he was alive, Mera met them with fire from an automatic weapon and was killed only after he jumped out of the bathroom window onto the street.

Mohammed Merah , a man whom media around the world until recently called the unknown shooter on a scooter, discovered himself on the night of March 20-21. The man called the France 24 television station around 1 a.m. and said that he took responsibility for the murder of seven people in Toulouse.

According to duty editor Ebba Kalondo, Mera spoke perfect French and showed no signs of agitation. He described in detail how he shot his victims in each of the three attacks, describing exactly what weapon he used in each attack and how many shots he fired.

Mera also stated that he was a member of the international terrorist network Al-Qaeda , and committed the murders out of political and religious convictions. According to the terrorist, the shooting of children and teachers at a Jewish school was a response to the killing of Palestinian children by the Israeli military. Mera called the attacks on military personnel retaliation for sending French soldiers to Afghanistan.

The shooter said that he did not repent of what he had done, but rather regretted that he did not have enough time to kill more people. He also proudly noted that he managed to “bring all of France to its knees.” When asked by Kalondo whether he really filmed the attack on children in a Jewish school, Mera replied that he filmed all the murders and intends to post the video on the Internet in the near future.

Police outside a Jewish school in Toulouse. Photo by Reuters

However, the plans of the potential YouTube star did not come true - the police arrived at his house about a couple of hours after the call to the editorial office of France 24. The police got on the trail after reading the email correspondence of the first of the soldiers killed by the terrorist - in a conversation with Kalondo, Mera said that he had posted in online advertisement for the sale of a scooter, and killed the potential buyer upon meeting, having learned that he was serving in the army.

The police who tried to enter the building were met with fire from an Uzi and a Kalashnikov assault rifle , two (according to other sources - three) of them were injured. Having made three attempts to storm, the security forces abandoned decisive action and decided to try to persuade Mer to surrender. Moreover, the directive to take the shooter alive was voiced by French Interior Minister Claude Gueant.

However, the further, the clearer it became that Mera was more likely to mock the police than to sincerely negotiate with them. He set the time for his own surrender at least twice, but did not confirm his words with actions. On the evening of March 21, impatient police officers used grenades to break the blinds covering the windows of the besieged house. The pops of the explosions confused journalists, who reported the start of a large-scale assault on the building, but this information was soon refuted by the police leadership.

Some time after this, contact with the terrorist was lost. Early in the morning of March 22, the head of the French Ministry of Internal Affairs said that there was no contact with Mera almost all night. Police have not ruled out the possibility that the perpetrator committed suicide. “We heard two shots inside the building, but we don’t know what it was,” Gehan said, expressing hope that the killer is still alive and will face justice. Mera previously stated that he intended to die with a weapon in his hands.

Soon after Gehan’s statement, journalists noticed that special forces and firefighters were grouped near Mer’s house, and that several ambulances were brought as close to him as possible. The police began the operation by throwing three stun grenades inside, but there was no reaction to this. Then - approximately 32 hours after the start of the siege - special forces entered the building from different directions.

What happened after that inside the house is not known exactly. Journalists and other eyewitnesses of the assault heard shots coming from the building, as well as explosions - they no longer resembled the sounds of flash-and-noise firecrackers, used mainly to intimidate the enemy. As it turned out, the special forces used explosives to break through the walls of the house, thus making their way through.

The lone shooter himself was waiting for the special forces in the bathroom, having properly prepared to meet them. During the shootout, Mera, who again opened fire with an automatic weapon, managed to wound three policemen (one of them seriously). Then, realizing that he would not be able to hold out in the bathroom, the terrorist tried to jump out the window. At the same time, he continued to fire, but, apparently, the special forces did not stop firing - under the bathroom window, Mera landed already dead.

Now the police and experts in the fight against international terrorism have to figure out how a 23-year-old Frenchman with Algerian roots came up with the idea of killing infidels and other radical ideas. A lot of fragmentary information appeared in the French media about Mera - he was a normal child, but he “fell ill” with jihad while surfing the Internet, he loved cars and driving fast. By the way, Mohammed's brother was also detained after the siege of the house began on suspicion of connections with al-Qaeda. They tried to involve Mer's mother in the negotiations during the siege, but she refused to participate in them, saying that for some time now she had no influence on her son.

As it turned out soon after the identity of the terrorist was established, in 2007 Merah ended up in an Afghan prison in the city of Kandahar. He was sentenced to three years for preparing a terrorist attack, but managed to escape after the Taliban stormed the prison in Kandahar in 2008. The director of the prison, Ghulam Farooq, spoke about this. In turn, the administration of the governor of Kandahar stated that a man named Mohammed Mera was never detained in the province and was not in prison. However, he could have been in Afghanistan under an assumed name.

Mohammed Mera. Still from video provided by Reuters

Apparently, after escaping from an Afghan prison, the young man was not put on the international wanted list, although French authorities say they have been monitoring him since the late 2000s, as Mera repeatedly traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Even if surveillance of the future killer was indeed carried out, apparently she was not vigilant enough. Mera himself told France 24 during a call that during his trips to Pakistan and Afghanistan he was trained in al-Qaeda training camps. Some negligence of the French security forces is confirmed by an interview with a woman who lived next door to Mera in Toulouse.

The woman said that several years ago Merah tried to recruit her son, who was 15 years old at the time, to join al-Qaeda. According to Merah's neighbor, the future terrorist played religious chants for her son calling for jihad, and also showed him videos of al-Qaeda fighters killing a woman and beheading hostages in Afghanistan.

According to an interlocutor of the newspaper Le Télégramme who wished to remain anonymous, after the story of the failed recruitment of her son, the woman contacted the police. This, according to her, infuriated Mer; he came to the neighbor’s house, shouting threats and curses. "He called me an atheist and threatened that I would suffer the same fate as all infidel Frenchmen. He also said that he would 'wipe out all those who killed Muslims from the face of the earth,'" the woman said. A few days later, she said, Mera hit her son and daughter several times in front of witnesses, but no one dared to stop him.

Now that Mera has confirmed his aggressive statements with action, the woman expressed deep regret that the police did not apprehend the potential terrorist earlier. She said she complained about Mehr at least twice.

Another aspect of the Toulouse shooter's story relates to the reaction of French politicians to it. The current head of state and presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy called the incident a “national tragedy”; his rivals predictably made similar statements, and also abandoned all election events until the end of the crisis in Toulouse.

Against this background, the right-wing candidate Marine Le Pen stood out , who refrained from harsh comments until the identity of the killer of three military (Arab) and four Jews was established. It is clear that if the killer turned out to be a French nationalist, this would deal a sensitive blow to Le Pen and her National Front. However, for the nationalist party, everything turned out as well as possible, and the card of immigrants from Arab countries “coming in large numbers here” and the threat of Islamic fundamentalism was played by Le Pen immediately. The leader of the National Front made her first comments even before the end of the siege, which led to legitimate accusations against her of political speculation in blood.

However, what now? The siege is over, the elusive killer is dead, and the national tragedy is a thing of the past. We can return to the election debates again.

Alexey Ponomarev

Through the window in the bathroom

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Lenta.ru: In the world: Through the window in the bathroom