Piecing Together the French Terror Attacks

Podcast

Piecing Together the French Terror Attacks

March 23, 2012, 10:22 a.m. EDT

A French National Police Intervention Group arrives on March 22, 2012 near the place where members of the RAID special police forces unit laid siege to the apartment block where Mohamed Merah, the man suspected of a series of deadly shootings, was holed up, on March 22, 2012 in Toulouse, southwestern France. (Pascal Pavani/AFP/Getty Images)

On the latest podcast, ProPublica senior reporter Sebastian Rotella talks to us about Mohammed Merah, the accused French terrorist who was killed after a standoff with French authorities.

Merah was suspected of killing three off-duty paratroopers, and three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school. On Wednesday, March 21, Merah was tracked down to an apartment in Toulouse and killed after a gun battle with French anti-terrorism police.

Rotella, who was based in France and has written extensively on terrorism plots and attacks in Europe and the rest of the world, shared his insights into how Merah evaded French intelligence officials, how he carried out the attacks with precision and whether he acted alone or in concert with others.

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