After a 32-hour siege of an apartment in Toulouse where Mohammed Merah, 23, suspected of murdering three children, a rabbi and three soldiers, was holding out, French commandos stormed his home on Thursday and killed the suspected murderer after a brief shoot-out. French authorities, who had hoped to have Merah captured alive, as French President Nicolas Sarkozy had requested, were left disappointed after the epic siege. Merah apparently had no intention to leave his home alive, having turned his three-room apartment into a fortress and stockpiling weapons, including two Colt handguns, a Sten submachine gun, an Uzi submachine gun and an air gun that police found at the end of the raid. Meanwhile, Frances Prime Minister Francois Fillon told French radio station RTL Friday that police had no grounds on which to arrest Merah before he carried out his attacks. Fillon defended the police and intelligence services, saying they had done a remarkable job in finding the killer within 10 days of the first attack, on March 11. While he acknowledged that some questions need to be asked, particularly relating to surveillance, there was no singe element which would have allowed the police to arrest Merah before the killings began, Fillon said. We dont have the right in a country like ours to keep under permanent surveillance without a judicial decision someone who has committed no offense, [sic] he told RTL. We live in a country under the rule of law. The prime minister went on to say that the French domestic intelligence service (DCRI) watched him for the necessary period, and it led to the conclusion that there was no indication or trace that Mohammed Merah was a dangerous man. Fillon also warned against confusing religious fundamentalism with terrorism. Investigations will continue, Fillon said. We will find out if he acted alone. He had money from thefts, drug dealing, he bought arms ... he seems to have acted alone. The order to apprehend the suspected killer was given at 10:30 a.m. (France time) on Thursday, and the operation began with two grenades thrown into the apartment. According to French Interior Minister Claude Gueant, after no reaction to the explosions was observed, special counterterrorism commandos (RAID) entered the apartment at around 11:01 a.m., not knowing if Merah was still alive. Special forces removed the shades of a window and the front door during the night, Gueant said. On the previous evening, Merah told police he would surrender, but retracted his statement later saying he would not fall into a police trap and would kill as many policemen as he could. From that point, there was no further contact with Merah until police stormed his apartment. Merah was found in the bathroom, poised and ready for police to arrive. He waited for police in a combat stance. He was ready for us, with his feet in 30 cm of water, wearing a bullet-proof vest and a black turban around his head. It was the first time I had seen someone charge at us, at the same time we charged at him, said Amaury de Hauteclocque, commander of the unit that entered the apartment. Ten minutes after the operation began, more than 300 spent bullet casings littered the apartment, indicating a fierce shoot-out. Merah wounded two policemen but was shot in the head as he jumped from the apartments balcony. He was already dead as he began to fall outside the apartment, a police officer said. Three policemen in total were wounded during the operation, one of whom is in serious condition. In the apartment, police found film clips of Merahs murderous crimes, which he himself had recorded using a small sportsmans camera. After viewing footage of the crimes, Francois Molins, Frances attorney-general, said, Mohammed Merahs acts were very clear. In one of the films, Merah is seen conversing with his first victim - Sgt. Imad Ibn Zitan. You are killing my brothers, so I am killing you, Merah can be heard saying before apparently shooting Zitan. In another film shot four days later, Merah is seen executing two more soldiers in Montauban, which in the words of Molins is an extremely violent scene. Merah, dressed in a black gallabiya (traditional Arabic robe), then fled the scene of the crime on a motorcycle while shouting Allahu Akbar (Allah is great). On March 19, four days after murdering the two soldiers at an automatic cash dispenser machine, the killer struck again at the Jewish school in Toulouse. In the films, Merah was said to have accepted full responsibility for the attacks. Several hours after the operation ended, French security officials evaluated the events and spoke to the media. At 1:20 p.m., Sarkozy himself announced that the long, difficult incident had reached its end. He addressed the fact that police failed to capture Merah alive, saying there was no other option for police because enough people have died, we did not want to endanger any more people. According to Molins, the investigation is now focused on accomplices who may have influenced Merah or cooperated with him. In the future, Sarkozy said, there will be additional measures taken to prevent such attacks from occurring. In France, anyone who views Internet pages with extreme ideological doctrines can now be indicted on criminal charges, and any French citizen who leaves the country for extreme ideological training and brainwashing, as Merah did, also runs the risk of indictment. Sarkozy has asked his justice minister to prepare a report concerning fundamentalist ideologies prevalent among French prisoners, since it is believed that Merah acquired his extremist motivation while serving time in a French jail. Concerning French claims that Merah was indoctrinated in Pakistan and Afghanistan, officials in the governments of both countries have said they have no documentation of Merah entering their countries. In addition, U.S. military forces in Afghanistan said they too have no such documentation, supporting police suspicions that Merah entered those countries illegally. In France, there has been a wellspring of criticism over police handling of the crimes. Toulouse General Council chairman, Jerome Garge, said the interior minister should be immediately dismissed for failing to unearth Merahs plans before he began his killing spree. The father of Abal Shanuf, one of the three soldiers allegedly killed by Merah before he attacked the school in Toulouse, said on Thursday that the fact Merah had died during the siege represented a major failure. I would have wanted to hear from the killer why he murdered my son, he said. The Jund al-Khalifa group, which is believed to be associated with al-Qaida, took responsibility for the attacks and in a statement said the aim was to force the French government to abandon its hostile policies toward the countrys Muslim population. The group also said the attack on the Jewish school was carried out to avenge Israeli crimes against Muslims.
