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TERRORISM

Man charged for ramming soldiers in Paris suburbs

French officials have charged a man for ramming a car into soldiers outside a barracks in an upmarket western suburb of Paris this month, injuring six, judicial sources said Thursday.

Man charged for ramming soldiers in Paris suburbs
French soldiers gather at the site where a car slammed into soldiers on patrol in Levallois-Perret. AFP
Hamou Benlatreche, a 36-year-old Algerian, was formally indicted by an anti-terrorism judge at a Paris hospital on Tuesday evening.
   
Investigators have not yet had the chance to interrogate Benlatreche as he was shot and seriously wounded during his arrest several hours after ploughing a black BMW into troops in Levallois-Perret on the morning of August 9.
 
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Man shot and arrested over car attack on anti-terror soldiers outside Paris
AFP   
 
He was eventually arrested several hours later after a dramatic motorway chase near the port of Calais in northern France.
   
He remains in hospital in the Paris area.
   
Last week, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said the suspect had scoped out the Levallois-Perret area three days before the attack and that the contents of his phone suggested an interest in the Islamic State (IS) group and a desire to go to Syria.
   
Since early 2015, France has been hit by a series of deadly attacks by Islamic extremists which have killed more than 230 people and injured hundreds
   
Of late, many of the attacks have been relatively low-tech, involving lone wolf suspects using vehicles as weapons or blades, and often targeting the security forces.
 
The suspect lives in Bezons, about eight kilometres (five miles) from the attack site, and has no previous convictions.

TERRORISM

Italian police arrest Algerian wanted for alleged IS ties

Police in Milan said on Thursday they had arrested a 37-year-old Algerian man in the subway, later discovering he was wanted for alleged ties to Islamic State.

Italian police arrest Algerian wanted for alleged IS ties

When stopped by police officers for a routine check, the man became “particularly aggressive”, said police in Milan, who added the arrest took place “in recent days”.

He was “repeatedly shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ while attempting to grab from his backpack an object that turned out to be a knife with a blade more than 12cm (nearly five inches) long,” they said in a statement.

The man was later found to be wanted by authorities in Algeria, suspected since 2015 of belonging to “Islamic State militias and employed in the Syrian-Iraqi theatre of war,” police said.

Police said the suspect was unknown to Italian authorities.

The man is currently in Milan’s San Vittore prison and awaiting extradition, they added.

Jihadist group IS proclaimed a “caliphate” in 2014 across swathes of Syria and Iraq, launching a reign of terror that continues with hit-and-run attacks and ambushes.

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