French Terrorist Sends Selfie After Murdering Boss

Police investigators wearing masks escorted a man accused of a beheading his boss to his home in southeastern France on Sunday, searching for a possible international link to the killing after he sent a photo of the victim to a contact in Syria, a security official said.

Yassine Salhi, 35, was handcuffed and wearing jeans, a knee-length djellabah robe and a loose towel over his head when judicial police led him into his residence in the town of Saint-Priest, outside the city of Lyon.

The official said police were searching for Salhi’s passport, to determine if he had traveled abroad before Friday’s attack that authorities are calling France’s first deadly terror attack since a killing spree in the Paris area in January.

Salhi, a truck deliveryman and father of three with a history of ties to Islamists, admitted earlier to the killing of the manager of the transportation company that had employed Salhi since March, officials said.

The official also said Salhi had sent a macabre selfie of himself and the victim to a man identified only as Younes, who allegedly has been in war-torn Syria since last year.

The severed head appeared to imitate the practice of the radical Islamic State group of beheading prisoners and displaying their heads publicly.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls said that “we cannot accept barbarity” and estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Salafists — who preach an ultraconservative form of Islam — were present in France.

“We are living under a major terrorist threat, and this terrorist threat is going to last,” Valls said. “We should know we’re going to fight this terrorism over the long term.”

This article appeared in print on page 3 of the June 29th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.