An Islamic State terrorist who attacked the Brussels Jewish Museum last May apparently was just doing a practice run.
Mehdi Nemmouche murdered a couple from Tel Aviv and two others at Belgium’s Jewish Museum on May 24. But Nemmouche was actually planning to carry out a mass attack in Paris at the Bastille Day Parade on July 14, according to a report published in the French Libération newspaper.
Nemmouche, 24, a native of Roubaix near Lille in northern France, bragged he would have murdered “Merah times five” had he succeeded in his plan for Paris. The reference was to Muslim terrorist Mohammed Merah, who killed seven in Toulouse in February 2012. Among the victims were three Jewish children and a rabbi at the Torah Ohr school.
His plan for Bastille Day didn’t pan out, however. Nemmouche was caught by French police just six days after attacking the Jewish museum in Brussels. He was arrested in Marseille, and extradited to Belgium – after authorities first agreed not to send him to Israel for trial.
The information on his major attack plot came from French journalist and former Islamic State hostage Nicolas Henin.
The journalist was held captive in Syria for 10 months by Nemmouche, along with three French nationals and several others. Among those who never made it home were fellow journalist captives James Foley and Steve Sotloff, both of whom were beheaded in the past several weeks.