Police: Islamic gunman dead after French standoff

[March 22, 2012]  TOULOUSE, France (AP) -- An Islamic extremist who boasted of killing seven people in an attempt to "bring France to its knees" died Thursday after jumping from his window, arms in hand, in a shootout with police, a French minister said.

Interior Minister Claude Gueant said the suspect, Mohamed Merah, who claims links to al-Qaida, was found holed up in the bathroom after police entered his apartment Thursday morning to end a 32-hour standoff. Police and the suspect exchanged gunfire before Merah died, with two police wounded in the firefight.

Authorities said Merah, a French citizen of Algerian descent, espoused a radical form of Islam and had been to Afghanistan and the Pakistani militant stronghold of Waziristan, where he claimed to have received training from al-Qaida.

Police said, in hours of negotiations Wednesday when the standoff first began, Merah admitted to being proud of killing a rabbi, three Jewish children and three French paratroopers in three separate motorcycle shooting attacks. They are believed to be the first killings inspired by Islamic radical motives in France in more than a decade.

Gueant earlier had said police wanted to capture Merah alive.

Elite police squads set off sporadic blasts throughout the night and into the morning -- some blew off the apartment's shutters -- in what officials described as a tactic aimed to pressure Merah to give up.

A new set of detonations, known as flash bangs, resounded at 10:30 a.m. (0930 GMT), beginning the end to the standoff.

Holed up alone in an otherwise evacuated apartment building, Merah clung to his few remaining assets, like a small arsenal and authorities' hopes of taking him alive. On Wednesday, he appeared to toy with police negotiators -- first saying he would surrender in the afternoon, then under the cover of darkness, then reneging on those pledges altogether, officials said.

"We still want him alive so he can be tried and so the families can mourn properly," Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told Europe 1 radio before the firefight Thursday.

Police said Merah told negotiators he killed a rabbi and three young children at a Jewish school on Monday and three French paratroopers before that avenge the deaths of Palestinian children and to protest the French army's involvement in Afghanistan, as well as a government ban last year on face-covering Islamic veils.

French authorities -- like others across Europe -- have long been concerned about "lone-wolf" attacks by young, Internet-savvy militants who find radical beliefs online, since they are harder to find and track.

"Lone wolves are formidable adversaries," Gueant said.

He defended France's efforts to fight terrorism over the past decade, saying 700 people have been detained and about 60 "Islamists with terrorist tendencies" are currently in French prisons.

Even before Merah's death, the lawyer who had defended him for years on a series of criminal charges predicted a dramatic and somber end to the standoff.

"He wants to show he is exceptional, omnipotent, and this approach can only end up as something tragic," Christian Etelin said on news channel i-Tele on Thursday.

He said Merah had tried to join the military but was rejected. He said Merah was also disillusioned after a string of convictions for petty crimes and after efforts to reduce his sentences through work programs failed.

"He felt rejected by the periods of detention he was handed out, and for his wish to defend France in the army. Now, he is in a process of hate," Etelin said.

Police said they had to capture Merah to prevent more deaths.

"He has no regrets, except not having more time to kill more people, and he boasts that he has brought France to its knees," prosecutor Francois Molins told a news conference Wednesday.

He said the suspect had plans to kill another soldier -- prompting the police raid at around 3 a.m. Wednesday. After it erupted into a firefight, wounding two police, a standoff ensued, with on-and-off negotiations with the suspect that lasted through the night.

[Associated Press; By SARAH DiLORENZO and JOHANNA DECORSE]

Jamey Keaten in Paris contributed to this report.

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