Three soldiers shot in France
Two paratroopers killed and another critically injured by gunman on scooter in second such attack within a week
guardian.co.uk
Kim Willsher in Paris
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 15 March 2012 16.12 EDT
Article history
A policeman holds a military jacket covered with blood at the scene in Montauban where three French soldiers were shot dead. Photograph: Eric Cabanis/AFP/Getty
Investigators fear a killer on a scooter is targeting soldiers after two were killed and one seriously injured in the second "ride-by" shooting in less than a week.
Three members of a parachute regiment were shot in a busy French town centre on Thursday afternoon. Two died instantly, while the third was reported to be in a critical condition in hospital.
The shootings followed a similar murder last weekend, when the officer of another parachute regiment was gunned down in almost exactly the same circumstances.
The soldiers, all in their 20s and in uniform, were standing by a cash machine in Montauban, south-west France.
Investigators said it was unclear whether the men were withdrawing money, or had left a nearby shop or restaurant and were passing the bank when they came under a hail of fire.
Witnesses heard several bursts of gunshots before the killer, riding what was described as a scooter and wearing a full-face helmet, escaped.
Police who sealed off the centre of Montauban, in the Tarn-et-Garonne region, found more than a dozen bullet shells at the scene.
The men, aged 28, 26 and 24, were from the 17th Parachute Regiment, which has been deployed in Afghanistan, Lebanon and former Yugoslavia and is based at a barracks just yards from the scene.
Gérard Longuet, France's defence minister, said it was with "the deepest emotion" he learned of the killings and said he was confident that investigators would do all they could to ensure the gunman was brought to justice.
He said his thoughts were with the "families of the dead men and their regiment".
Brigitte Barèges, the mayor of Montauban, said she was "shocked and outraged" by "an assassination that appeared like a true summary execution". She said the victims' regiment had "already paid, sadly, the price of the war in Afghanistan" having lost four soldiers there.
On Sunday in a suburb of Toulouse – 46km south of Montauban – a 30-year-old off-duty member of another parachute regiment was shot in the head at point blank range by a gunman on a scooter.
The victim, Imad Ibn-Ziaten, 30, a marshall in the 1st Parachute Regiment, was killed while standing next to his Suzuki 650cc motorbike outside a local gym. According to French investigators, Ibn-Ziaten, who was not in uniform, was wearing his motorcycle helmet at the time he was shot.
His commanding officers said he had served with the French army in Ivory Coast, Chad and Gabon. Detectives say he had advertised his motorbike for sale and had received a call from an interested buyer a few minutes before he was killed in what appeared to be a cold-blooded execution.
Police and local gendarmes hunting the killer or killers say they have not established a link between the shootings.
A police source told French journalists: "Everyone thinks there's a link between the two incidents, but we have to wait for the first results of the inquiry." |
