An ISIS sympathizer who stabbed and killed a couple with ties to the French police had posted a video of the attack on Facebook.
The SITE Intelligence Group, which has tracked ISIS, said the suspect, Larossi Abballa, recorded a video of himself amid the attacks in Magnanville, a suburb of Paris. The website posted photos of him and said the ISIS' Amaq news agency released his video, apparently as a form of propaganda.
In the video, according to SITE director Rita Katz, Abballa urged more attacks from Muslims in France, saying, “kill them even if their name is Mohammad or Aisha,” which are names commonly given to Muslims.
“Attack them, even if you die.Then you'll go to Paradise,” he also stated.
Katz added that the video is a first “of its kind” published by Amaq, which mainly releases propaganda videos or clips of fighting in Iraq and Syria. Amaq wrote that he was an “Islamic State fighter” who killed a “deputy chief of the police station ... and his wife with blade weapons near Paris.”
Following the attack, President Francois Hollande described the killing of police Capt. Jean-Baptiste Salvaing, 42, and his partner, Jessica Schneider, 36, at a Paris-area police department as “cowardly” act “by a terrorist.” He said French security forces now have his “full support.”
“This is undoubtedly a terrorist act,” he told reporters after the attack, according to a live stream of his press conference. “The attacker wanted it to be recognized as such. He was neutralized thanks to the work of the security forces.”
French prosecutors have now launched an anti-terrorism investigation, he said.
French TV station iTELE reported that France-born Abballa, 25, was a convicted terrorist who was already known to French authorities.
French prosecutor Francois Molins said Abballa was sentenced to prison in 2013 over his ties to jihadist groups. He added that the man pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi during negotiations prior to the police assault, adding he was answering an ISIS call to “kill infidels.”
Three other people linked to Abballa were taken into custody, he said. Abballa was shot and killed when French cops entered the couple’s home.
In the video, he said he was considering killing the couple’s son. “I don’t know yet what I’m going to do with him,” the terrorist can be heard saying, according to the BBC. He also made threatening statements about the Euro 2016 soccer tournament.
Two Facebook accounts linked to Abballa were shut down on Tuesday. Abballa also targeted six other people on his computer, iTELE reported, which included rappers, celebrities, and journalists.
