Third bomber at Paris’s Bataclan music hall identified

Foued Mohamed-Aggad left France for Syria in December, 2013, telling his family he was leaving to be a suicide bomber in Iraq and would not return, reported The Associated Press.

The SMS message was sent to the mother of Foued Mohamed-Aggad, one of the three terrorists who slaughtered 90 people in the now infamous concert hall on 13 November.

The two other bombers have been identified as Omar Ismail Mostefai, 29, from Chartres, southwest of Paris, and Samy Amimour, 28, from Drancy, northeast of Paris. Members of the group later told investigators they went to take part in a humanitarian mission, not to fight for IS.

Two extremists who attacked the Bataclan were killed by detonating explosive vests and the third was shot by police.

Two out of the three terrorists that stormed Bataclan had been identified by the authorities in the days following the attacks.

In Mohamed-Aggad’s home town of Wissembourg, about 70 km north of Strasbourg and near the German border, some people who knew him were surprised to learn of his role. The Frenchman numerous returnees said recruited them for IS, Mourad Fares, is also under arrest.

“She was terror-struck by the idea that he could have been one of suicide attackers at the Bataclan”, said the mother’s lawyer, Francoise Cotta, and went straight to the police.

The latest information means that all attackers identified so far were French or Belgian, and were all native French speakers.

President Barack Obama paid a midnight tribute to the victims last week, laying a single white rose at the Bataclan. They are now facing charges for terror-related offenses.

Frontman Jesse Hughes said: “A great reason why so many were killed was because so many people wouldn’t leave their friends, and so many people put themselves in front of people”.

Mohamed-Aggad was one of a group of young men from Strasbourg, France, and its region who left for Syria at the end of 2013, according to the lawyer and the French news media.

Officials have yet to put names to all of eight dead gunmen and suicide bombers directly involved in last month’s attacks, for which ISIS have claimed responsibility.

French authorities have identified a third suspect in the Paris attack at the Bataclan theater last month.

He says what makes Mohamed-Aggad slightly different is that he appears to have spent longer than the others in Syria.

Aggad’s father, Mr Said Mohamed-Aggad, said he was “surprised” to learn about his son’s murder spree.

A militant who was killed in a police raid on November 18 remains unidentified, the AP reported.