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Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > 'Normal Muslim' Terrorist Confesses To Beheading His Boss - Sent Selfie Of Him Together With Severed Head To Syria

'Normal Muslim' Terrorist Confesses To Beheading His Boss - Sent Selfie Of Him Together With Severed Head To Syria

June 28, 2015

France: Terrorist Confesses to Beheading His Boss


After several hours of silence, Islamist Yassin Salhi finally confesses to his gruesome crimes in Friday terror attack in Lyon.

Arutz Sheva Staff

The Muslim extremist suspected of decapitating his boss in an attack on a gas factory in France has confessed to the grisly crime, sources close to the investigation said Sunday.

Terrorist Yassin Salhi, 35, "has also given details about the circumstances" surrounding the killing, according to the sources, who said he would be transferred to Paris for further questioning later Sunday by anti-terrorist police.

Salhi's confession came after it emerged the married father-of-three sent a gruesome selfie photo of himself and the severed head to a WhatsApp number in Canada.

Investigators have warned however that it could be a relay number and the intended recipient could be anywhere in the world.

After several hours of silence, Salhi has begun to open up to investigators about the assault, which came six months after 17 were killed in Islamist attacks in Paris that began with the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

On Friday morning, Salhi rammed his van into the US-owned Air Products factory near France's second city of Lyon in what President Francois Hollande said was a "terrorist" attack designed to blow up the whole building.

He was overpowered by a firefighter as he was trying to prize open a bottle of acetone in an apparent suicidal bid to destroy the factory.

Police then made the grisly discovery of the severed head of Salhi's boss, 54-year-old Herve Cornara, lashed to the gates of the factory near two flags on which were written the Muslim profession of faith.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls repeated that the world was engaged in a "war against terrorism."

"We cannot lose this war because it's fundamentally a war of civilization. It's our society, our civilization that we are defending," Valls told iTELE rolling news channel.

France is facing "a major terrorist threat" which needs to be fought "over the long-term", warned the prime minister.

It's not a question of whether there will be another attack, but "when" and "where", stressed Valls.

Day of bloodshed

Friday's attack came on a day of bloodshed on three continents that saw 38 people mown down on a Tunisian beach and 26 killed in a suicide attack in Kuwait.

The Islamic State extremist group has claimed responsibility for those two attacks but no group has said it carried out the French attack.

Sources close to the investigation said Salhi was radicalized more than a decade ago after contact with Muslim convert Frederic Jean Salvi - known as "Ali" - who is suspected of preparing attacks in Indonesia with Al-Qaeda terrorists.

An autopsy on the victim has proved inconclusive, with experts unable to determine whether he was killed before being beheaded or decapitated alive.

The French probe is naturally focusing on Syria, where hundreds of people from France have gone to wage jihad, officials said.

Anti-terrorist authorities have identified 473 people who have left France to fight in Iraq or Syria and Valls said 1,800 people in France were "linked" in some way to the jihadist cause.

Like the Charlie Hebdo attackers and Islamist Mohamed Merah who gunned down soldiers and Jewish children in the southwest city of Toulouse in 2012, Salhi had been known to French security services for "radicalization" but slipped through the net.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Friday Salhi had been investigated for links to radical Salafists in Lyon, but was not known to have participated in terrorist activities and did not have a criminal record.

Europe has for months been bracing for so-called "lone wolf" attacks by supporters of Islamic State, which has urged its followers to strike wherever they can.

France, which has the highest Muslim population in Europe, last week passed a controversial new spying law granting sweeping powers to snoop on citizens.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/197371#!

Grisly Details of French Terrorist Beheading 'Selfie' Emerge


'Selfie' with decapitated head and potential links to Al Qaeda investigated as Islamist terrorist undergoes interrogation.

Arutz Sheva Staff

French police were grilling a suspected Islamist terrorist Saturday about an attack in which the man displayed his boss's severed head, as it emerged he may have sent a "selfie" of the decapitation.

Sources close to the investigation said the suspect, Yassin Salhi, a 35-year-old married father-of-three sent a picture of him with the severed head via the WhatsApp messaging service, which ironically was invented in Israel.

The message was sent to a North American number but investigators said they were still working to determine the final recipient, as the number used could be a relay.

Authorities are questioning Salhi about Friday's attack, during which he also drove his van into a warehouse packed with dangerous gases in an apparent bid to blow up the factory and himself.

The prosecutor in the case said firefighters overpowered Salhi as he was trying to open acetone bottles in what is believed to have been an attempt to cause a larger explosion at the US-owned Air Products factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Lyon.

The firefighters then discovered the decapitated body of his 54-year-old boss Herve Cornara - who ran a delivery firm - near the car, along with a knife.

Cornara's head was pinned to a nearby fence.

"The head was surrounded by two Islamic flags bearing the Shahada, the profession of (the Muslim) faith," said prosecutor Francois Molins.

No jihadist group has claimed Friday's attack, which came on the same day as a massacre at a Tunisian beach resort in which 38 people were gunned down and a suicide bombing in Kuwait that killed 26.

The other two attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State (ISIS) group.

However, sources close to the investigation said Salhi was radicalized at the start of the century after contact with a man suspected of preparing attacks in Indonesia with Al Qaeda terrorists.

"Unable to speak"

Authorities hope an autopsy, expected to be carried out later Saturday, will offer more clues. A source close to the case said it would seek to determine if the victim was first killed before being decapitated.

Meanwhile, in the town of Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, shocked residents held a minute's silence, followed by a pulsating rendition of France's national anthem.

One man, Philippe Ouastani, said he turned out in solidarity with the victim. "It's unheard of to decapitate someone in the 21st century. What weapons do we have to combat that? Being here, together."

Another woman, wearing the Muslim headscarf, said she was "unable to speak" when she heard the news.

"These acts have got nothing to do with religion. The Prophet never said to kill innocent people," raged the woman, who requested to remain anonymous.

She tried to find words to explain the killing to her four-year-son. "There are naughty people who have done bad things. The police will put them in prison to punish them for their silly, silly actions," she told him.

"Better armed"

The gory attack in France came nearly six months after a three-day Islamist killing spree in Paris left 17 people dead, most of them gunned down in the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, aside from a policewoman and four Jews at a kosher supermarket.

Like the Charlie Hebdo attackers and Islamist Mohamed Merah who gunned down soldiers and Jewish children in the southwest city of Toulouse in 2012, Salhi had been known to security services for "radicalization", but slipped through the cracks.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Friday Salhi had been investigated for links to radical Salafists in Lyon, but was not identified as having participated in terrorist activities and did not have a criminal record.

Speaking after a ministerial meeting on Saturday with President Francois Hollande, Cazeneuve vowed the government would "continue to work relentlessly" against terrorism.

France is on high alert over hundreds of citizens who have gone to wage jihad in Iraq and Syria, as well as those involved in recruitment or radicalization online.

Similarly, Europe has for months been bracing for so-called "lone wolf" attacks by supporters of Islamic State, which has urged its followers to strike wherever they can.

Cazeneuve outlined measures taken by the government in recent months to face "a threat which has never been as high" such as the creation of hundreds of new jobs for police, gendarmes and intelligence agents.

Some 230 million euros ($256 million) will also go to modernizing surveillance methods to keep track of jihadists online.

Earlier this week, France passed a new spying law granting sweeping powers to snoop on citizens.

Cazeneuve said the law allowed security services to be "better armed" to fight the jihadist threat.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who cut short an official trip to South America to rush home, warned France faced more attacks and that Friday's assault would increase tensions in the country, putting citizens' resilience "to the test."

AFP contributed to this report.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/197339#!

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