Islamic State

French jihadists face Iraqi justice under the discreet orders of Paris

International — Investigation

Twelve former residents in France – eleven of them French citizens, one a Tunisian – have now been sentenced to death in Iraq for having been a member of Islamic State. But whatever charges they face, the way in which Iraqi justice is being carried out in relation to the jihadists has raised major concerns, including among many French lawyers. As Mediapart has revealed, the ides of trying these French citizens and residents in Iraq was conceived in Paris where officials want the process to be carried out “without visible involvement by France”. Matthieu Suc reports.

Lyon bomb suspect told police he pledged allegiance to ISIS

France — Link

IS has not claimed responsibility for bombing in which 13 people were lightly wounded by a device that exploded outside a city centre bakery.

Iraq passes death sentence on three French accused of joining IS

International — Link

An Iraqi court has sentenced to death three French men who it found guilty of having joined the ranks of the so-called Islamic State (IS) group in Syria, where they were among 12 French citizens captured by US-backed forces and transferred to Iraq.

France taken to EU rights court over stranded jihadist children

International — Link

The grandparents of a three-year-old boy and his sister aged four, who were wounded and captured with their French mother after the fall of the Islamic State stronghold of Baghouz and who are currently stranded in a detention camp in north-east Syria, have begun legal action against the French state before the European Court of Human Rights for refusing to repatriate the three. 

France repatriates several orphaned children of jihadists in Syria

International — Link

France has announced the repatriation of five children aged up to five years who were placed in internement camps in Syria after their French parents, who had joined the Islamic State group, are reported to have died or gone missing in fighting, and thanked Kurdish-led forces 'for their cooperation, which made this outcome possible'. 

French grandparents sue state over IS orphans in Syria

France — Link

Children, a girl aged five and a two-year-old boy, are in the care of a Kurdish militia in north-eastern Syria, according to family lawyer.

French prosecutors want Le Pen tried over tweet

France — Link

The leader of the far-right Rassemblement National could face trial for tweeting pictures of atrocities committed by the Islamic State group.

French Islamic State accused handed over to face trial in Iraq

France — Link

Iraqi president Barham Saleh said the 13 were handed over by Syrian Kurdish forces last month.

High-profile French jihadist Fabien Clain 'killed' in Syria air strike

International — Link

Fabien Clain, 41, aka 'brother Omar', a veteran leading member of the so-called Islamic State group, who claimed its responsibility for the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead, has been killed in a coalition air strike in Syria which also wounded his brother Jean-Michel, according to French media reports.

France says its troops will remain in Syria

International — Link

President Macron apparently spoke to President Trump in advance to try convince him not to remove US troops from Syria.

'Unstable' French knifeman kills mother and sister, IS claims attack

France — Link

A knife-wielding 36-year-old man described by France's interior minister as suffering from 'serious psychiatric problems' was shot dead by police on Thursday after murdering his mother and sister and severely wounding another woman in the town of Trappes, south-west of Paris, in an attack which the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for.

Iraqi court sentences French woman to life for joining IS group

International — Link

Mélina Boughedir, who left her home in France with her four children in 2015 to follow her husband to Iraq, was sentenced to life by Iraqi court.

Paris knife attacks confirm the new threat from IS

France — Analysis

One person was killed and four others wounded after a French national of Chechen origin went on a knifing rampage in central Paris on Saturday evening, in a terrorist attack claimed by the Islamic State group (IS). Khamzat Azimov, born in Chechnya in 1997, was shot dead by police minutes after he began stabbing passers-by on a street near to the Garnier Opera house. Mediapart terrorism specialist Matthieu Suc analyses here the reasons behind the changing strategy of IS-sponsored attacks in Europe, and in France in particular where they have claimed the lives of 246 people since 2014.

Phone tap reveals panic of Lafarge shareholders over Islamic State funding affair

France — Investigation

An intercepted telephone call involving the former boss of French cement firm Lafarge, which is accused of funding terrorist group Islamic State to keep its Syrian cement plant in production, shows the extend of the “worry” that has gripped the company, which has since become a Franco-Swiss multinational. Just how far – and to whom – will the current judicial investigation extend? Fabrice Arfi reports.

IS group 'claims responsibility' for SW France shooting attacks

France — Link

A shooting spree on Friday morning in and around the town of Carcassonne in south-west France, when three people were killed and another 16 wounded, and which ended in a hostage-taking at a supermarket when the lone 25-year-old gunman was shot dead by police, has been claimed in the name of the Islamic State group.