OEA Team Threat Report OEA TEAM TRISA Title
Mohammed Merah –
Al-Qaeda LoneDate Actor in France
US Army TRADOC G2 TRADOC Intelligence Support Activity (TRISA) – Threats Mohammed Merah in a home video*
Publication Date: 05 April 2012 US Army TRADOC G2 Information Cut-Off Date: 05 April 2012 TRADOC Intelligence Support Activity (TRISA) – Threats 1 UNCLASSIFIED UNCLASSIFIED OEA Team Threat Report Purpose
To inform Soldiers, deploying units, scenario developers, and trainers about murders committed by lone actor Mohammed Merah in France.
To discuss the likely motive(s) for Mohammed Merah’s actions.
Product Caveat: This presentation has been developed from multiple unclassified sources and is primarily intended for use as a training product for the Department of Army. This briefing should not be considered a finished intelligence product, nor used in such a manner.
2 UNCLASSIFIED OEA Team Threat Report Executive Summary
Describes the killings perpetrated by Mohammed Merah
Summarizes Merah’s background
Discusses Merah’s radicalization and connections to Islamic radicalism
Details the weapons used by Merah
Discusses possible motivations for Merah’s actions
3 UNCLASSIFIED OEA Team Threat Report Introduction In March 2012, a series of murders shocked France. In three attacks, each four days apart, a lone gunman calmly and deliberately killed French soldiers and then Jewish children and a Rabbi before escaping each scene on a motor scooter. The principal suspects for these murders were three former French paratroopers who were previously dismissed from the army for alleged neo-Nazi beliefs. The murderer turned out to be Mohammed Merah, an unemployed Frenchman of Algerian descent with a history of petty crimes and family connections to Islamist radicals. In a more than 30-hour standoff with police, Merah claimed to be an al- Qaeda member and boasted that he had “brought France to its knees.”1 Merah’s case highlights the challenges and complexity presented by lone actors who commit acts of terror.
4 UNCLASSIFIED OEA Team Threat Report Timeline of Attacks2 24 February 2012: Imad Ibn-Ziaten, a 30-year-old staff sergeant in the 1st Airborne Transportation Regiment, places an online ad to sell a motorcycle; Ibn-Ziaten identified himself as a soldier in the ad. 6 March 2012: Merah steals a Yamaha T-Max 500cc scooter in Toulouse. . The owner of a dealership in Toulouse notified police when Merah asked how to remove the scooter's GPS tracking device. 11 March 2012: Imad Ibn-Ziaten is shot in the head with a .45 caliber pistol and killed, behind the Chateau de l'Hers school in Toulouse, while waiting to meet a man who responded to his motorcycle ad. French police traced communications related to the ad to an email account used by Merah's family.
5 UNCLASSIFIED OEA Team Threat Report Timeline of Attacks3 15 March: Two members of the 17th Airborne Combat Engineering Regiment, Corporal Abel Chennouf, 24, and Private Mohamed Legouad, 26, both of North African origin, are killed and a third, 28- year-old Corporal Loic Liber from the French overseas region of Guadeloupe, is left in a coma after being shot while waiting in line at a cash machine in Montauban. There were numerous witnesses to the attack that occurred around 1400 hours outside a small shopping center. Before opening fire, Merah reportedly moved aside an elderly woman, who was apparently also standing in line at the cash machine. Witnesses said Merah acted calmly, stopping to change the magazine of his .45 pistol and turning over one of the wounded soldiers, who was trying to crawl away, before shooting him three more times. Merah wore a motorcycle helmet with the visor up during the attack. In video he recorded during the attack, Merah leaves the scene shouting “God is great!”
6 UNCLASSIFIED OEA Team Threat Report Timeline of Attacks4 19 March: Merah shot and killed three children and a teacher and wounded a 17-year-old boy at Ozar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse. . Merah opened fire with a 9mm (apparently an Uzi) then changed to a .45 caliber pistol after the 9mm jammed. He reportedly fired indiscriminately inside the school grounds. . Jonathan Sandler, a 30-year-old rabbi and teacher, and his two sons Gabriel and Arieh, ages four and five, were killed. Myriam Monsonego, seven, daughter of the head teacher, was also killed after reportedly being grabbed by the hair and shot in the head. . Merah wore a motorcycle helmet with the visor down during the attack. . Merah was wearing a video camera in a chest harness during the attack.
Jund al Khilafah [Soldiers of the Caliphate], a terror group linked to al-Qaeda and the Haqqani Network that operates in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas, claimed credit for this attack. The group did not claim credit for the other attacks attributed to Merah. . The Shumukh al-Islam forum, which is a primary means of distribution for al-Qaeda and other jihadist materials, later removed the statement from its
Web site. 7 UNCLASSIFIED OEA Team Threat Report Timeline of Attacks5 Approximately 0320 hours, 21 March: Police attempting to arrest Mohammed Merah at his apartment in Toulouse were fired upon and two police officers were wounded. Police set-up a perimeter and attempted to negotiate with Merah. 21 March: Postmarked date of a package addressed to the Paris office of Al-Jazeera, containing video from the three shooting incidents saved on a USB memory stick, along with a letter. . According to a source at the Paris newspaper Le Parisien, investigators are attempting to determine if Merah placed the package in the mail on the night of 20 March or if it was sent by an accomplice on the morning of 21 March. . A police source stated “It’s a video montage of the various killings set to music and readings from the Koran.” 22 March: Mohammed Merah died in a gun battle with police at his apartment after a 32 hour standoff. He was wearing body armor and barricaded himself inside his apartment, using the bathtub as additional protection.
8 UNCLASSIFIED OEA Team Threat Report 6 Youth Merah’s Background . Born 10 October 1988 in Toulose, France . Grew up in the Les Izards area of Toulose . Was a poor student, expelled often, and dropped out at a young age Algerian in ancestry, French citizen but also had an Algerian passport Family . Parents separated when he was five, two brothers (one named Abdelkader) and two sisters Unemployed at time of attacks, worked odd jobs intermittently Criminal record . Sentenced 15 times for petty crimes, eight while a juvenile, and seven for misdemeanors as an adult . Police psychological profile states he was “violent as a minor” . Served 18 months in prison for purse snatching; released in September 2009 . Sentenced on 24 February 2012 to a month in jail for driving without a license and striking a pedestrian on his motorbike; was to appear in April for determination of where he would serve the sentence
Attempted to join the French military but was ineligible due to his 9 criminal history UNCLASSIFIED OEA Team Threat Report Merah’s Radicalization7 Christian Etelin, a lawyer who represented Merah since 2005, believes Merah may have been radicalized in prison. . “There was a break” from the youth he knew before his imprisonment, Etelin said. “I supposed when he got out of prison that he was on the path of radicalization because while in jail there are other inmates who are very religious.” Merah told police during the standoff that he studied the Koran in prison. Merah entered Afghanistan in the fall of 2010 from its northern border with Tajikistan, and traveled south to Kandahar. . He was detained at a roadblock while traveling with a group of Afghans in November 2010, nine days after entering Afghanistan, and transferred to American custody. He was questioned by Afghan intelligence and the French embassy was informed. He returned to France on his own accord on 05 December 2010. He traveled through at least eight countries on his way to Afghanistan in 2010, including Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Israel, and Egypt. . He was briefly detained by police in Israel. . During this trip, he visited his brother Abdelkader, who was living in Cairo at the time. Abdelkader was associated with militants in Cairo 10 UNCLASSIFIED OEA Team Threat Report Merah’s Radicalization8 Merah visited Pakistan between August and October 2011. He returned to France suffering from Hepatitis A. . While in Pakistan, he contacted a French intelligence official who had requested to interview him regarding his 2010 travels. Merah stated he was in Pakistan looking for a wife. . After hospitalization in France for Hepatitis A, he was interviewed by investigators. He showed them photos that he said were from his tourism in Pakistan. . During the standoff, Merah claimed to have received training from al- Qaeda affiliates in Waziristan.* He also claimed he was given €20,000 to purchase weapons. According to state prosecutor Francois Molins, Merah was “categorized as a Salafist” by French authorities monitoring him. He may have been a member of Forsane Alizza ("Knights of Pride"), a Salafist group that was officially banned in France in January 2012 for "inciting national, racial, and religious discrimination."
*Analyst comment: Jund al Khilafah (JaK) claimed responsibility for the attack at Ozar Hatorah Jewish school. JaK is known to operate in Waziristan and is affiliated with al-Qaeda. This suggests Merah’s claims of receiving training and funding from al-Qaeda are true. 11 UNCLASSIFIED OEA Team Threat Report Connections to Islamist Radicals9 Merah’s mother married the father of Sabri Essid. Sabri was arrested in Syria in 2006 at an al-Qaeda safe house for militants traveling to Iraq. . Sabri was part of a network recruiting in Toulouse for al-Qaeda in Iraq. . Mohammed Merah’s older brother, Abdelkader Merah, was suspected of membership in the network . Merah visited Sabri in a French prison, and sent him money. In 2008, Abdelkader Merah was associated with a network in Brussels that was sending Belgian and French recruits to Cairo to join Islamist militants in Iraq. This network may also have connected Europeans with Islamist militants in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. In January 2012 Merah visited Olivier Corel, a Syrian-born Islamic leader known as “the white emir” in the French press, at his home outside Toulouse. . French police investigated Corel for involvement with a group of jihadists arrested in 2007 and convicted in 2009 of “association with members of a terrorist organization.” Corel was thought to have encouraged the men to fight in Iraq but he was not convicted of any offense. . Corel admits Abdelkader Merah visited him at least once but does not admit being visited by Mohammed Merah. 12 UNCLASSIFIED OEA Team Threat Report Merah’s Weapons10 A .45 ACP pistol was used in all three attacks, apparently the same
Colt 45 Merah was armed with during the standoff at his home. According to French media reports, Merah was in possession of a “Kalashnikov assault rifle,” an Uzi (unknown model), a STEN, a pump- action rifle, a shotgun, a Colt Python revolver, and three .45 caliber pistols. During the attack at the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school, Merah initially opened fire with a 9mm firearm before switching to a .45 ACP pistol. It appears the Uzi and a Colt 45 were the weapons used in the killings. Authorities found various calibers of ammunition in Merah’s apartment after the standoff.
Analyst comment: The STEN is a fully automatic sub machine gun chambered in 9mm. The various Uzi models are chambered in 9mm, .45 ACP, .41 AE, or .22 LR. It is unknown what model Uzi Merah possessed but it appears to have been a 9mm. The term “Kalashnikov assault rifle” is often used to refer to the AK-47 rifle. Likewise, the term “Colt 45” is often used to refer to a Colt M1911 pistol. Some news reports state Merah had “automatic” weapons. It is unknown how many fully automatic weapons he possessed and it is unclear if he ever used fully automatic weapons during the attacks or the police standoff. 13 UNCLASSIFIED OEA Team Threat Report Merah’s Weapons11 In France, private possession of firearms is heavily restricted, and
only licensed owners may lawfully acquire, possess, or transfer a firearm or ammunition. An applicant for a firearm license must pass background checks. A licensed firearm owner is only permitted to possess a limited quantity of ammunition. Only a very small portion of the French population is authorized to own firearms. Many firearms on the illegal market in France originated in Eastern Europe. There are also weapons from World War II still in circulation, such as the STEN. Timothé Artale, a spokesman for France’s General Police Union Workers’ Force, says a Kalashnikov can be purchased on the illegal market for about €1,000. . Merah claimed he received €20,000 from “Brothers in Pakistan” to buy weapons. Artale and Ange Mancini, France’s intelligence national coordinator, believe it is more likely Merah used the proceeds of his criminal activities to buy the weapons.
Analyst comment: The term “Kalashnikov” is often used to refer to the AK-47 rifle. 14 UNCLASSIFIED OEA Team Threat Report Speculation on Motivation12 Until the stand off with Mohammed Merah, speculation centered on a neo -Nazi or right-wing individual or group being responsible for the attacks. Even after three “neo-Nazi” parachute regiment veterans were cleared of involvement, police and media continued to focus on the idea that the gunmen were motivated by racism. When it was revealed that the shooter at the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school was wearing a GoPro camera, it was theorized that the killer was inspired by Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik. “This extremely small and lightweight field camera is used to document your operation,” Breivik wrote in the manifesto he posted online. . A video montage of footage from the killings, set to music and including citations from the Koran, was mailed to the Paris office of Al Jazeera. French President Nicolas Sarkozy claimed racism was behind the attacks. “Of course, by attacking children and a teacher who were Jewish, the anti-Semitic motivation appears obvious,” Sarkozy said. “Regarding our soldiers, we can imagine that racism and murderous madness are in this case linked.” 15 UNCLASSIFIED OEA Team Threat Report Speculation on Motivation13 Dominique Thomas, a professor at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales university and a specialist on radical Islamism, said Merah “seems to be a delinquent, poorly integrated in society, who failed at school. What came out is a feeling of hatred and a desire for revenge. He didn’t seem to have a structured Jihadist ideology but to have channeled his hatred and claimed an al-Qaeda affiliation.” Bernard Squarcini, the head of the French police counterterrorism agency, told Le Monde newspaper that Merah had shown "psychiatric issues" in the past. Merah himself stated to police during the standoff that he was a mujahideen and a member of al-Qaeda. In a phone interview with France 24 reporter Ebba Kalondo, Merah stated the attacks were to protest the law banning the Islamic veil and France’s participation in Afghanistan. He also stated he killed Jewish children in revenge for murdered Palestinian children.
16 UNCLASSIFIED OEA Team Threat Report Speculation on Motivation14 It is possible that Merah met with JaK members during his 2011 travel to Pakistan. JaK may be the “brothers in Pakistan” or al-Qaeda that Merah claimed provided him with training and funding. It appears Merah had connections with Forsane Alizza [Knights of Pride] a radical French Muslim organization banned in February 2012. Paris security sources believe Mohammed and Abdelkader Merah were involved with “the Toulouse group,” a militant jihadist network. Richard Barrett, coordinator of the U.N. Sanctions Committee on al- Qaeda and the Taliban, told CNN there were indications that Merah had contacts with militants in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. The French newspaper Le Monde cited security sources as saying Merah may have been in contact with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.
17 UNCLASSIFIED OEA Team Threat Report Inconsistent Witness Statements15 The suspect in the three attacks was described by witnesses as tall and muscular. In contrast, one witness stated the gunman was "of average height and quite fat." . Merah was 5’6” and slender
A witness to the 15 March attack stated, “I saw the gunman as he was getting away. His visor was lifted up and I looked into his eyes. He had a tattoo on his face, of that I am sure.” . Merah did not have a tattoo on his face
Analyst comment: Witnesses to violent crimes, such as assault or murder, will sometimes perceive the aggressor as larger than they are in reality, due to the threat the aggressor presents. This may explain why witnesses stated the shooter was tall and muscular. Additionally, witnesses to crimes are sometimes influenced by statements of others and will convince themselves that they observed the same things they heard another witness state. Neither phenomenon would account for the witness who stated the shooter in the 15 March attack had a tattoo on his face, however.
18 UNCLASSIFIED OEA Team Threat Report Analyst Comments French authorities are downplaying Merah’s connection to al-Qaeda. While there is no definitive evidence that he received support from al- Qaeda or one of its various affiliates, Merah made repeated claims of al-Qaeda association and support. Merah’s past history indicates it is likely he received assistance from an individual or group in obtaining the weapons, camera, body armor, and other items he used in the attacks. Merah was an unemployed petty criminal. He did not appear to have the ability to acquire the money to pay for the items on his own. Given Mohammed Merah’s familial links to international Islamist networks, it is likely his brother, Abdelkader, or his stepbrother, Sabri, provided him with connections that facilitated his travels in 2010 and 2011. It is reasonable to assume such connections would be capable of providing him with a terrorist organization contact. Merah did not conform to fundamentalist Islamic practices. His true motivation(s) will never be known but it is clear he wished to be seen as an al-Qaeda member acting on the group’s behalf.
19 UNCLASSIFIED OEA Team Threat Report Training Implications A mass murder/mass casualty incident or series of incidents could be
utilized in a training scenario to exercise many elements of a command staff, such as the Provost Marshal, G2, G3, Public Affairs, Information Operations, etc. A training scenario could employ a lone actor to exercise analysts by using various sources to provide pieces of intelligence that, when combined, may lead them to a serial murderer. The same intelligence could also be utilized to determine where, how, and from whom the weapons are obtained, perhaps also identifying a weapons source for insurgent/terrorist cells. Incorrect conclusions by trainees as to the lone actor’s motivation and/or affiliation to OPFOR organizations could be used to branch into additional scenario events. The example of French conclusions of the attacks being conducted by neo-Nazis illustrates such a possibility. Inconsistent witness statements are another element that could be utilized in a training scenario. Well intentioned but incorrect information poses additional challenges to trainees. 20 UNCLASSIFIED OEA Team Threat Report POCs
OEA Team 913-684-7920 (COMM) 552-7920 (DSN)
TRADOC G-2 Intelligence Support Activity (TRISA) 700 Scott Ave, Bldg 53 Ft Leavenworth, Ks 66027
21 UNCLASSIFIED OEA Team Threat Report
AKO https://www.us.army.mil/suite/portal/index.jsp
22 UNCLASSIFIED