Toulouse and Montauban shootings | |
---|---|
Part of Islamic terrorism in Europe | |
Location of Toulouse and Montauban, France | |
Location | Midi-Pyrénées, France: |
Date | 11 March 2012 22 March 2012 | –
Target | French soldiers and Jewish civilians |
Attack type | Spree shooting, school shooting, siege, mass murder, Islamic terrorism |
Weapons |
|
Deaths | 8 (including the perpetrator) |
Injured | 11 |
Perpetrator | Mohammed Merah[1] |
Motive | Extremist Islamic beliefs, opposition to war in Afghanistan, Antisemitism |
Convictions | Abdelkader Merah and Fettah Malki convicted of taking part in a criminal terrorist conspiracy |
The Toulouse and Montauban shootings were a series of Islamist terrorist attacks[2][3][4] committed by Mohammed Merah in March 2012 in the cities of Montauban and Toulouse in the Midi-Pyrénées region of France. He targeted French Army soldiers as well as children and teachers at a Jewish school.[5][6][7] In total, seven people were killed and eleven more wounded.
Merah, a 23-year-old[8] French criminal of Algerian descent born and raised in Toulouse,[9] began his killing spree on 11 March, shooting an off-duty French Army paratrooper in Toulouse. On 15 March, he killed two off-duty uniformed French soldiers and seriously wounded another in Montauban.[10] On 19 March, he opened fire at the Ozar Hatorah Jewish day school in Toulouse, killing a rabbi and three children, and also wounding four others.[11][12] After the shootings, France raised its terror alert system, Vigipirate, to the highest level in the Midi-Pyrénées region and surrounding departements.[13]
Merah, who filmed his attacks with a body-worn camera, claimed allegiance to Al-Qaeda. He said he carried out his attacks because of France's participation in the War in Afghanistan and its ban on Islamic face veils,[3] and justified his attack on the Jewish school because "The Jews kill our brothers and sisters in Palestine".[14][15][16] He was killed on 22 March by a police tactical unit after a 30-hour siege at his rented apartment there, during which he wounded six officers.[17][18][19] His brother and another man were later convicted of taking part in a "terrorist conspiracy" over the attacks, which were condemned by the French Council of the Muslim Faith,[20] the United Nations[21] and many governments around the world.[22]
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