French Shooting Suspect Dies in Firefight With Police

France's Interior Minister Claude Gueant arrives to speak to the media after the assault to capture gunman Mohamed Merah during a raid on a five-story building to arrest a suspect in the killings of three children and a rabbi on Monday at a Jewish school,

French authorities are investigating whether a suspect in a string of shootings that killed seven people in southwestern France had any accomplices. The suspected killer, Mohammed Merah, died Thursday after a firefight with French police in the city of Toulouse.

The last minutes of the Toulouse drama took place on the national stage - with live accounts of the firefight between French police and suspect Mohammed Merah. Authorities say the gunman, 23, kept shooting as he threw himself from the window of the apartment where he had been holed up for hours. A Paris prosecutor says police shot him in the head and he was found dead on the ground.

Closure

Merah's death brings closure to more than a week of killings in the Toulouse area - first targeting French paratroopers and then Jewish children and a rabbi. French authorities say the suspect acted methodically, at one point chasing an eight-year-old girl into a school courtyard before shooting her dead. Authorities linked the same weapon to all the shootings carried out by a man on a motorcycle.

In an address to the nation shortly after the firefight, French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for healing and unity.

Sarkozy said the French must overcome their indignation and control their anger. He said French Muslims had nothing to do with the crazy motivations of a terrorist, noting the assailant had also shot Muslims.

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Trained by al-Qaida

Barricaded in the Toulouse apartment for hours, Merah told police he received training from al-Qaida in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He killed his victims, he said, to retaliate for France's military involvement in Afghanistan -- and to avenge the deaths of Palestinian children.

Sarkozy announced penal measures against those receiving terrorist training overseas or consulting Internet sites espousing hatred and terrorism. He called for new scrutiny of French prisons to prevent them from becoming places of extremist indoctrination.

Members of France's Jewish and Muslim communities are staging a joint march on Sunday in memory of the Toulouse victims.

Healing process

In a joint interview on France's RTL radio with France's chief rabbi, Mohammed Moussaoui, head of the French Muslim Council, said it is important for France not to mix Islam with terrorism. He said he is relieved the drama is over.

The killings have cut to the heart of a presidential campaign in which immigration and Islam have been hotly debated. Sarkozy's handling of the events have clearly helped him in the polls. A new survey puts him two points ahead of his main Socialist challenger, just a month before presidential elections.

Recent Attacks in Toulouse and Surrounding Area:

  • Sunday, March 11: Sergeant Imad Ibn Ziaten, a 30-year-old French paratrooper, is shot dead in a residential neighborhood in Toulouse. Police believe the shooter found him through a small ad he placed offering a motorbike for sale. The ad specified that he was a soldier.
  • Thursday, March 15: Corporal Abel Chennouf, 25, and Private Mohamed Legouad, 26, are shot and killed by a man on a motorbike, outside of their barracks in the town of Montauban, a town north of Toulouse. A third soldier, Corporal Loic Liber, is also seriously wounded in the attack.
  • Monday, March 19: Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, a 30-year-old teacher, is shot and killed along with his sons Arieh, 5, and Gabriel, 4, at the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse. Seven-year-old Myriam Monsonego, the daughter of the school's principal, is also killed in the attack. All four had French and Israeli citizenship. An unnamed 17-year-old boy is also seriously wounded in the attack.
  • Wednesday, March 21: Two policemen are wounded during an attempt to storm an apartment in Toulouse occupied by the suspect, 23-year-old Mohammed Merah.
  • Thursday, March 22: Suspected killer, Mohammed Merah, dies after a firefight with French police in the city of Toulouse.