Iraq News

Brother of Marseille attacker fought in Syria: police

A brother of Ahmed Hanachi, the Tunisian who stabbed two young women to death in the French city of Marseille this month, served as an extremist fighter in Syria, AFP reported Tuesday (October 10th).

Anis Hanachi was arrested Saturday night in Ferrara, Italy, after French authorities issued an international arrest warrant, Italian police said Monday.

French investigators, who suspect Anis of complicity in his brother's attack, indicated that he had "fought, waged jihad in Syrian-Iraqi territory, with military experience", Lamberto Giannini, head of Italy's counter-terrorism team, said at a press conference.

"A hypothesis that remains to be verified is that it was him who indoctrinated his brother Ahmed and caused his radicalisation," Giannini said.

Ahmed Hanachi, 29, attacked the two women at Marseille's Saint-Charles train station on October 1st before being shot and killed by troops.

He had lived for several years in Aprilia, south of Rome, where he married an Italian woman.

He was not known to attend any mosque, but was known to the police for drug and alcohol problems.

The "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but French investigators have yet found evidence linking it to the fighters.

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