Profile of Mohammed Merah

From the Wall Street Journal:

On Thursday, a more-complete picture emerged of Mr. Merah, who police say conducted seven point-blank killings in and around Toulouse over the previous 11 days.

Over recent years, according to the emerging accounts, the French citizen of Algerian descent appeared to be looking for a place to belong—–seeking twice, without success, to join the French armed services.

Investigators have recovered what they say are “explicit” videos of the attacks that they say Mr. Merah made using a camera strapped to his body. In a film police say is from the shooting of a soldier March 11, the gunman is heard to say: “You kill my brothers, now I’m killing you.”

In his alleged attacks, Mr. Merah appeared to follow al Qaeda’s founding cause of killing “Jews and crusaders.” He is suspected of having shot dead three soldiers from regiments that had dispatched troops to Afghanistan, and of having opened fire on a Jewish school in Toulouse, leaving four dead, including three children.

On Wednesday, police say he told his interlocutor that he had “brought France down on its knees,” expressing regret that he had failed to kill more people

More tweets:

https://twitter.com/#!/latimes/status/183035349008785408

https://twitter.com/#!/germany_news/status/183045159540367361

https://twitter.com/#!/FRANCE24/status/183103553500491776

https://twitter.com/#!/ria_novosti/status/183103840755785728