The gunman behind the attacks in the French city of Toulouse earlier this year may have had terror ties, according to a report from France’s Le Monde newspaper, which cited confidential police documents.
Mohamed Merah, 24, who was shot dead by police and was accused of shooting three soldiers, then four people at a Jewish school in March, made 1,863 phone calls to a number of contacts in 20 different countries within six months of the attacks, the report said.
He also traveled to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and several countries in the Middle East.
He made calls to Morocco, Spain, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Taiwan, Laos, Croatia, Romania, even the small Himalayan country of Bhutan, among others.
According to Le Monde, an investigator said Merah “frequently changed the SIM cards” that were in his mother’s name in his phones. “This suggests that his family was trying to cover Merah’s tracks.”
French intelligence agencies had been watching Merah and his family for several years before the attacks were carried out. According to YNet News, Merah was identified by French intelligence officials as a “new recruit” among radical Islamists in 2010.
Merah went on a shooting spree on March 11, 15, and 19, the last of which claimed the lives of three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school. Police cornered him in an apartment before shooting him, following a 32-hour standoff.
In all three attacks, Merah used a stolen scooter to arrive at each scene of the crime and to flee from it, it was reported at the time.
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