Man rams car into soldiers guarding French mosque

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 | French police stand next to the red Peugeot car used in the attack against soldiers outside a mosque in Valence, southeastern France, on January 1, 2016./AFP
| French police stand next to the red Peugeot car used in the attack against soldiers outside a mosque in Valence, southeastern France, on January 1, 2016./AFP
A man was shot and injured on Friday after attempting to ram his car into soldiers guarding a mosque in the southeastern French city of Valence, authorities said, adding that the driver’s motives were unclear.

One soldier was slightly injured in the leg, and a passerby was hit in the leg by a stray bullet, the interior and defense ministers said in a joint statement.

The man, who was not immediately identified, was arrested and taken to hospital, according to the statement by Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve and Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

Both ministers and French Prime Minister Manuel Valls were swift to send their backing to the soldiers.

“My support for the soldiers attacked in Valence. Fully appreciate our forces, mobilised for the security of France,” Valls said in a tweet.

France is on high alert after the Nov. 13 Paris attacks that killed 130 people.

The soldiers in Valence are part of the reinforced security guarding places of worship and other sensitive sites.

Prudence over motive

The incident occurred in mid-afternoon, between two prayer sessions, when there was a large crowd outside, the rector of the mosque, Abadallah Dliouah, said.

The prefecture said the mosque was usually very calm, “and worship there takes place peacefully.”

Nicolas Daragon, the mayor of Valence, said the driver twice rammed his vehicle at the soldiers, who were guarding the city’s main mosque.

The soldiers, some thrown to the ground, fired warning shots and one then fired to disable the driver, who was hit in the arm and leg, Daragon told iTele TV, praising the soldiers for their “remarkable” self-control.

The attacker’s motives are being investigated, Daragon and the local prosecutor said.

The secretary-general of the prosecutor’s office, Frederic Ouiseau, told the TV station that authorities must be “extremely prudent about the motive” of the attack.

(FRANCE 24 with AP)

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26 responses to “Man rams car into soldiers guarding French mosque”

  1. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    “and a passerby was hit in the leg by a stray bullet” …. can’t aim any better than Israelis.

    1. Rudy1947 Avatar

      Then again Israelis have proven more accurate and justifiably so. The French will have to improve as the Islamic terrorists will likely improve.

      1. Off-topic. Why does your avatar look like a me109. I had assumed it was a spitfire, but comparing the two , it has more features of the me109. So what is it. This comes from… post WW2 aprox 1947ish? Earily IAF ?

        1. Rudy1947 Avatar

          Try an Avia S-199. Czech built, post WW2. You should find the history interesting.

          1. Got to love history.

    2. Hind Abyad Avatar
      Hind Abyad

      “..can’t aim as Israelis”, they’re not Zionists, they shot him in the leg to interrogate him.. not kill him.

      1. 5thDrawer Avatar
        5thDrawer

        Ok .. was just noting that when bullets fly there’s no telling where they can end up – even if shot up at Allah. (‘boy on swing in playground’ story last year – prime example in Lebanon.)

  2. Rudy1947 Avatar

    The French Muslims are taking a page from PaliArabs. Unfortunately the success of such a tactic has proven ineffective.

  3. Hind Abyad Avatar
    Hind Abyad

    Why would a Muslim man unknown to that Mosque ram his car into soldiers ‘guarding places of worship and other sensitive sites (in Valence), while he’s from Lyon, taking a page from settlers.

    1. Rudy1947 Avatar

      Taking a page from PaliArbs. Like the PaliArabs it didn’t work.

      1. Hind Abyad Avatar
        Hind Abyad

        You still in kindergarten? Are you stomping your feet?

        1. Rudy1947 Avatar

          No, are you.

      2. Hind Abyad Avatar
        Hind Abyad

        Taking a page from children killers.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHttdlXr5Z0

        1. Rudy1947 Avatar

          Palestinians were invented in 1964. Before then they were Arabs. Until such time as they figure it out I consider PaliArab as wishy washy as the Arabs trying to figure it out.

          1. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            Yes kindergarten, bye again

          2. Rudy1947 Avatar

            Bailing out again. Damn, you came highly recommended as a persistent commenter.

          3. Funny, I read Josephus and I never remember him saying anything of the sort. There were non Judeans in Ashdod and Gaza, which were ports. But Jaffa was part of the Hasmonean kingdom according to the maps I have always read. Not sure that they were a seafaring power, but they definitely had access to the sea.

          4. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            The term “Peleset” (transliterated from hieroglyphs as P-r-s-t) is found in five inscriptions referring to a neighboring people or land starting from c.1150 BCE during the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt. “Pilistu”, 1822, scholars have connected the Egyptian “Peleset” inscriptions with the Philistines,[3] described in the Masoretic bible as “pelistim”. The Assyrians called the same region “Palashtu/Palastu” or “Pilistu”,

    2. The attacker’s motives are being investigated, perhaps we will know soon the whole story.

      1. Hind Abyad Avatar
        Hind Abyad

        We know the story in French press not in English; no terrorist links they say, a 29 years old French Muslim with Tunisian origins living in Lyon, acting alone, he was operated in the leg and will pass further interrogations.

        1. Now we know the whole story

          France 24
          “Dernière modification : 02/01/2016

          Le procureur de Valence a annoncé, samedi, que la piste terroriste avait été écartée dans le cadre de l’enquête sur l’agression de quatre militaires. Des “images de propagande jihadiste” ont néanmoins été trouvées dans l’ordinateur du suspect.”

          1. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            As i said, we know the story in French

    3. Is that a rhetorical question? In the US, a husband and wife dropped off their baby and went on a rampage. Are you serious? These are not rational humans. You cheer for them because you hate all things Western. You obfuscate and pretend that this might have been an Islamophobic attack when you know (as does the world; especially the French, now) that it was a crazed Muslim lunatic.

  4. Motives were unclear? He yelled Allah Akbar and tried to kill French soldiers.
    Hmmm, I wonder…

  5. BTW, how did all the comments become Jew-centric? You people are mad.

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