Islamic terrorism strikes again in France — how long until the world realizes that ISIS is at war with the West? This time, they struck one of the places where most would imagine they feel safest. Take a look at this sick and horrifying act of terror:
Francois Hollande says France is at war with ISIS after Islamist knifemen chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ beheaded a French priest and left a nun fighting for her life – before police shot them both dead.
The 86-year-old priest was butchered while two nuns and two parishioners were held by assailants who raided the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray near Rouen in Normandy during morning mass at 9am.
The clergyman, named as Jacques Hamel, is believed to have been beheaded during the attack while another hostage, said to be a nun, is fighting for life in hospital.
The two attackers were ‘neutralised’ by marksmen as they emerged from the building, which is now being searched for explosives. French president Francois Hollande said France is ‘at war’ with ISIS while the terror group has claimed responsibility for the killing.
There were reports the attackers shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ as they ran out of the church while at least one of the men was dressed in Islamic clothing.
It comes as it emerged that the building was one of a number of Catholic churches on a terrorist ‘hit list’ found on a suspected ISIS extremist last April.
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There are also reports that one of the attackers was a local resident who was under electronic tag surveillance having been jailed in France for trying to travel to Syria in 2015. His bail terms allowed him to be unsupervised between 8.30am and 12.30pm – the attack happened between 9am and 11.am.
ISIS has already claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement published by its Aamaq news agency. It said the killing was carried out by ‘two soldiers of the Islamic State.’ It added the killing was in response to its calls to target countries of the US-led coalition which is fighting ISIS.
French President Francois Hollande, visiting the scene of the attack, appealed for ‘unity’ in France, where political blame-trading has poisoned the aftermath of the Nice truck attack, the third major strike in the country in 18 months.
‘The threat remains very high,’ said Hollande. ‘We are confronted with a group, Daesh, which has declared war on us. We have to wage war by every means, (but through) upholding the law, which is because we are a democracy.’
Read more: Daily Mail
