Video footage shows the
pair with an IS sign, as they hold hands and declare backing for the group's
leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.
The men thought to be the
killers of a French priest pledged allegiance to Islamic State in a video that
has been released by the jihadist group.
Adel Kermiche, 19, and
Abdelmalik Petitjean, believed to be 20, stormed a Normandy church during
morning mass on Tuesday and slit Father Jacques Hamel's throat at his altar.
The pair, who IS has called
its "soldiers", also took three nuns and two churchgoers hostage in
the building.
Police later shot dead the
two terrorists as they ran from the church shouting "Allahu Akbar".
Petitjean is thought to be
from France's Savoie region and was identified through an ID found at
Kermiche's home, French media reported.
He is believed to have been
on a watch list like Kermiche.
Security forces in France
are under scrutiny after it emerged Kermiche was under house arrest and wearing
a tag, having twice tried to travel to Syria.
His tag was turned off for
a few hours each morning to allow him to leave home - and it was in this time
that Kermiche and Petitjean slit the 86-year-old's throat.
Petitjean was
identified as churches across France held memorial services for the priest
May God punish him and his entire family
ReplyDelete