French prosecutor says Thalys gunman premeditated attack

The Moroccan suspect in a foiled attack on a high-speed train in France is facing terrorism charges over what authorities say was a plan to unleash carnage among hundreds of passengers – but his family defended him Wednesday, saying he was in a desperate situation.

Prosecutor Francois Molins said Ayoub el Khazzani, 26, watched the video on YouTube before opening fire on the Thalys train on Friday.

A Moroccan national, El-Khazzani had lived in Spain, France and Belgium, according to reports.

The elder Khazzani, a junk dealer living in the heavily Muslim neighborhood of El Saladillo in the Spanish port city of Algeciras, went on to blame both Spain and France for not finding his son a job, thusly whatever desperate actions he may have made were never his fault to begin with.

Besides the assault rifle, El-Khazzani had 270 rounds of ammunition, a pistol, a box-cutter and a bottle of gasoline, Molins said.

Despite Khazzani’s claim that he had slept on a bench in Brussels in the days prior to boarding the train on August 21, Molins said he had actually stayed with his sister in the Belgian capital, which was searched on Monday.

Norman said that, at the award ceremony, he and French President Francois Hollande had a conversation in which they discussed the importance of everyone participating in the fight against terrorism.

Cazeneuve said the man in custody, whom he did not name, had been “identified by the Spanish authorities to French intelligence services in February 2014 because of his connections to the radical Islamist movement”. Pan said. “We’re very proud of them we really want to recognize their heroism here in their Capitol, in their hometown”.

But prosecutors say he had recently traveled to Turkey, possibly en route to Syria and had watched a jihadi video on his cellphone moments before the attack. He stressed his commitment to counterterrorism efforts at home and overseas against extremists.

And his goal? The prosecutor put it in stark terms: El Khazzani, the prosecutor said, was “attempting to kill a whole train full of people”. “Some objects were confiscated for further investigation”. The statement did not elaborate.

Magistrates are expected to file several charges against Khazzani, including attempting a terrorism-related attack.

Investigators are looking into how Khazzani obtained his weapons and whether he had accomplices.

Meanwhile, the Californian capital Sacramento said it would hold a parade of honour for the three young Americans who tackled the gunman: Alek Skarlatos, a 22-year-old National Guardsman, Spencer Stone, a 23-year-old US Air Force member, and Anthony Sadler, also 23, a student at the state university. The American said he saw the professor was bleeding profusely from his neck, realized a tourniquet would do no good, and plunged two fingers of his undamaged hand into the wound to cap a burst artery.

“It seemed to be a premeditated and targeted project”, he said. He said surgeons had to re-attach his thumb. “I have so much more to do with my life”. “He’s a free spirit”. His lawyer, Sophie David, said on French TV that her client claims he was just homeless and hungry and wanted to rob the train and then jump out a window.