Page 9 - ATODAY

WORLD NEWS 9
Thursday 10 December 2015

Text to mom announcing death A refugee family passes beside Greek riot police officers at a refugee camp near Idomeni railway
identifies 3rd Bataclan attacker station in northern Greece by the border with Macedonia, photographed from the Macedonian
side of the border, near the town of Gevgelija, on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015. Greek riot police
LORI HINNANT have removed Wednesday hundreds of protesting migrants from a border crossing to Macedo-
NICOLAS MONTAGNY nia, which is denying them entry, deeming them to be economic migrants and not refugees.
Associated Press
PARIS (AP) — It took a text message from Syria to a (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)
mother in northeast France to reveal the identity of the
third killer at the Bataclan concert venue in Paris: Your At least 12 dead in Aegean boat sinking
son died as a martyr Nov. 13.
For nearly four weeks, police had failed to identify the COSTAS KANTOURIS tion European Union, and weeks and also periodical-
third gunman who stormed the concert venue along Associated Press about 770,000 people have ly prevented refugees that
with two French Islamic extremists, killing nearly three- IDOMENI, Greece (AP) arrived so far this year. More Macedonia will accept
quarters of the total 130 people who died in the Paris — A wooden smuggling than 200 have drowned so from crossing the border.
attacks. boat carrying about 50 far, and at least 120 more About 350 Greek police
Then, about 10 days ago, Foued Mohamed-Aggad’s people sank Wednesday are listed as missing. launched an operation just
mother in Strasbourg received a text message in Eng- in the eastern Aegean Sea. Few want to remain in fi- after dawn Wednesday to
lish announcing her son’s death “as a martyr” — a typi- Greek authorities said at nancially stricken Greece, clear the migrants — many
cal way that the Islamic State group notifies families least 12 people drowned, with almost all heading to of them from Iran, Morocco
of casualties. She gave French police a DNA sample including six children, and the border with Macedo- and Pakistan — from the
which showed that one of her sons was killed inside the 12 others were missing. nia then through the Bal- border area. Escorted by
Bataclan, his brother’s lawyer said, confirming an ac- In northern Greece, riot po- kans to more prosperous police motorcyclists and
count by French officials, who requested anonymity to lice removed more than European nations. patrol cars, 45 buses car-
release details of the investigation. 2,000 migrants who had Some Balkan countries, rying about 2,300 people
“Without the mother, there would have been nothing,” been protesting for weeks however, have stopped headed south from Idome-
said the lawyer, Francoise Cotta. at a border crossing with allowing anyone except ni to Athens, where authori-
The news announced Wednesday further confirms that Macedonia, which is de- those from war-torn coun- ties set up shelters and will
the deadly Paris attacks were carried out largely, if not nying them entry. Greek tries to cross their bor- encourage the migrants to
entirely, by Europeans trained by Islamic State extrem- coast guard and navy ves- ders, considering the rest make asylum applications
ists. sels, a helicopter and a ves- not refugees in danger in Greece. A member of the
All the Nov. 13 attackers identified so far have been sel from the European bor- but economic migrants Doctors of the World char-
from France or Belgium, native French speakers who der agency Frontex were who just want better jobs. ity at the border said there
wanted to join IS extremists. The Bataclan attackers, searching for survivors off Macedonia is allowing only were few tensions Wednes-
who carried automatic weapons and wore suicide the Greek island of Farma- people from Syria, Afghani- day between police and
vests, were responsible for the worst of the carnage. konissi after the boat sank stan and Iraq to cross in, migrants.“Things were gen-
Mohamed-Aggad left Strasbourg for Syria in Decem- early Wednesday. Authori- leaving thousands of oth- erally calm, because the
ber 2013, a French judicial official said, at a time when ties said 26 people were ers stranded on the Greek migrants didn’t react,” sur-
about a dozen young men from the eastern French rescued. Weather condi- side of the border. Migrants geon Vassilis Naoum said.
city headed to the war zone. Some returned of their tions in the area were good have protested the new “In some cases where they
own will — including his brother — telling investigators but survivors told the coast restrictions and sometimes did, I saw them being de-
they were disgusted by what they had seen. Their sus- guard the boat had begun the demonstrations at the tained ... this happened to
pected recruiter for IS, Mourad Fares, is also under ar- taking on water shortly af- Idomeni border crossing at least 30 people.”
rest in France. All are charged with terror-related of- ter setting sail from Turkey. have turned violent. The Police said 10 migrants
fenses and face trial. Greece is the main entry unrest has severed a key were detained for resisting
Cotta said Mohamed-Aggad had told his family point for asylum-seekers Greek freight train link with a transfer to the buses.q
months ago that he was going to be a suicide bomber trying to get into the 28-na- northern Europe for three
in Iraq and had no intention of returning to France. She
told The Associated Press that Mohamed-Aggad was
flagged as a radical but there was no warrant for his
arrest. The other two Bataclan attackers, Omar Ismail
Mostefai and Samy Amimour, were also French. Two
of the three gunmen detonated their explosives when
police special forces moved in, while the third was shot
by an officer and his explosives went off.
French-speaking Islamic State fighters, primarily from
France and Belgium, tend to live and fight together.
Mohamed-Aggad’s arrival in Syria coincides approxi-
mately with that of the two men who died with him
inside the Bataclan, and with that of the suspected
architect of the attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who
was widely believed to be a leader of the franco-
phone combat unit.q