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Paris: Known Islamists must be expelled from France, Le Pen says after train attack

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Marine Le Pen © Charles Platiau / Reuters

Marine Le Pen © Charles Platiau / Reuters

People known to have ties with radical Islamist groups must be expelled from France and not allowed back, the leader of the right-wing National Front Marine Le Pen said, after a suspected Islamist gunman was apprehended on a train.

“Foreigners who are known to have ties with radical Islamism must not only be filed in databases of the special services, but also immediately expelled from French territory, if they live in France. And anyway they must not be allowed entry,” said the French politician known for her anti-immigrant stance.

The statement came a day after a man, reported to be a 26-year-old Moroccan previously red flagged by Spanish special services for having Islamist ties, was restrained by passengers on a high-speed Thalys train. The man was carrying several weapons, including an assault rifle, and apparently intended to go on a shooting rampage.

Le Pen said in the case of the man, Ayoub El Khazzani, the French special services had demonstrated poor handling of information concerning potential security threats.

“The system doesn’t work because it doesn’t allow for the true question to be asked: why does France allow in a foreign citizen, who is known to be dangerous and connected to a murderous ideology,” she said.

READ MORE: French high-speed train attacker ‘connected with radical Islamists, visited Syria’ – minister

“France today is a constant target for the barbarous criminals who take advantage of the lack of borders in the EU and the Schengen zone,” Le Pen added, saying that France should reestablish its national borders.

A Frenchman and two American soldiers who happened to be in the car prevented the potential massacre on the Thalys train, which was en route to Paris from Amsterdam. The would-be terrorist stabbed one of the US nationals in the altercation. Another man, famous French actor Jean-Hugues Anglade, cut his hand breaking the glass on the emergency stop button.

Islamists clash with Charlie supporters at Turkish university

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n_77145_1A group of Islamists at Ankara University have clashed with another group of students who were commemorating both the victims of the Charlie Hebdo attack and the Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was killed eight years ago.

Both groups gathered at Ankara University’s Cebeci campus on Jan. 19. According to the Doğan News Agency, stones and bottles were thrown after one of the groups attempted to release a press statement in favor of the Charlie Hebdo victims and Dink.

Police dispersed the groups by using tear gas.

The students, who had announced the Jan. 19 demonstration earlier through Ankara University’s Facebook page, were threatened by Islamist students on the same platform. Referring to the students who had pinned posters that said “Je Suis Charlie” and “We Are All Hrant,” an Islamist student had written on Facebook that the campus “would see unprecedented violence” if the posters were not taken down.

Thousands of people commemorated Hrant Dink in Istanbul on Jan. 19, the eighth anniversary of his killing.

January/19/2015

Islamists attack St. Etchmiadzin Church in Mosul

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The jihadist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has attacked the St. Etchmiadzin Church in Mosul, Iraq, religious leader of the Armenian community of Dohuk, Rev. Fr. Mosul ArmenianMasis Shahinyan told Lradou.com.

According to preliminary reports, fire broke out near the church.

Sources at the Armenian Prelacy in Iraq said that 65 Armenian families and a priest in Mosul were forced out of the city after Islamist militants raided the city and took control of Iraq’s second largest city.

Insurgents raised black flags over parts of the city on Tuesday, as soldiers fled their posts after Sunni extremists took the city after four days of heavy fighting against Iraqi forces.

Islamists force 150,000 to flee Mosul

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Iraq crisis: 

More than 150,000 people have been forced to flee Iraq’s second city of Mosul after Islamist militants effectively took control of it.
_75437819_022625414Troops were among those fleeing as hundreds of jihadists from the ISIS group overran it and much of the surrounding province of Nineveh.
Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki responded by asking parliament to declare a state of emergency to grant him greater powers.
The US said the development showed ISIS is a threat to the entire region.
US State department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the situation in Mosul was “extremely serious” and that the US supported “a strong, co-ordinated response to push back against this aggression”.
A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was “gravely concerned” at the situation.
He encouraged the Iraqi government and the Kurdish regional government to cooperate in restoring security to region.

Analysis Michael Knights, Washington Institute for Near East Policy
If ISIS were to develop firm control of the city they would have replicated their success in seizing an administrative and economic capital in Syria’s Raqqa province.
In fact, a consolidated ISIS caliphate in western Mosul – with a population of over a million people – would be a far greater success than anything the movement has achieved in Syria and would send shock waves throughout the region.
For this reason we can expect hard fighting to follow as the Iraqi government uses every resource at its disposal – military forces, new local militias, air power, Iranian-backed Shia volunteers from southern militias, the Kurdish Peshmerga plus US intelligence and logistical support.

The battle for Mosul is shaping up to be a critical test of the political and military vitality of the Iraqi state.

Probably only a political-military solution supported by all of Iraq’s factions can restore the situation but it is too soon to gauge whether the Iraqi government recognises this reality.