Mohammed Merah

Mohammed Merah (محمد مراح; 10 October 1988 – 22 March 2012) was a French jihadist who admitted to killing seven people, including three children, in several shootings in southwestern France in March 2012.

He was killed following a police siege and standoff.

Merah was born on 10 October 1988 to French parents of Algerian origin.

His parents divorced when he was five.

He was raised, along with his two brothers and sisters, by their single mother in a "tough part of Toulouse".

As a minor, he was described as having "a violent profile from childhood and behavioural troubles".

Merah was described as a polite and loner youth.

He was arrested numerous times as a youth, mostly for petty crimes such as purse-snatching.

He was first arrested in 2005 and served two short prison terms; the first was 18 months in 2007-08 for aggravated robbery, and the second was in 2009.

His convictions reportedly included thefts and driving offences.

According to his friends, Merah never went to the mosque, although his family had been traditionally Muslim.

He was known to French authorities because of his travels to Afghanistan and Pakistan, which were on various watch lists.

After the shootings, French TV station M6 published a 2006 French intelligence document.

It said that Merah was a member of the Islamist jihadist movement Forsane Alliza, a French organisation with a cluster of followers in Toulouse who are suspected of inciting to violence and terrorism.

The French government outlawed the Forsane Alizza organization because it was encouraging citizens to travel to Afghanistan to fight jihad.

The lawyer for the group, speaking after the shootings, denied claims that the leader of the group had any connections with Merah.

French intelligence described Merah as having the "ability to travel and furnish logistic assistance to other militants."

The document revealed that Merah was under surveillance since 2006.

Police have been investigating whether Merah acted alone in planning his attacks.

On 25 December 2008, Merah tried to commit suicide by hanging.

A subsequent psychiatric report described Merah as polar narcissistic, noting his slicked-back hair and high interest in personal grooming and designer clothes.

Merah was described as a polar introvert.

The psychiatrist stated Merah's "mood is stable" but that he "recently had dark thoughts" and spoke of "suicidal intentions."

He found Merah to be "anxious" and "introverted" but not "psychologically disturbed".

He said Merah exhibited "neurotic fragility owing to the departure of his father and lack of supervision on his mother's part."

Merah had a history of psychological problems.

French intelligence officials have suggested he had a double life or even a split personality, which allowed him to party in nightclubs and drink alcohol with acquaintances who were unaware of his arsenal of weapons, visits to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and attack plans.

He had been married but separated from his wife.

In January 2008, Merah tried to join the French Army, but was rejected because of his criminal past.

According to declassified documents from the DCRI (French domestic intelligence), Merah and his older brother Abdelkader had been placed under surveillance in late 2009 after they traveled to Egypt, where Merah went to learn Arabic.

In July 2010, he went to the recruitment centre of the Foreign Legion and stayed overnight, but left before he could be evaluated.

In 2010, he was identified as a "new recruit" in radical Islamist circles.

The DCRI questioned him after he returned from a visit to Pakistan.

French media reported that in 2010 Merah had forced a neighbour's boy to watch graphic war videos from Afghanistan and beat up the boy's sister after the mother intervened.

Bernard Squarcini said that Merah "appeared on radars" when arrested in Kandahar, Afghanistan in December 2010, while visiting as a "tourist."

He was followed officially by French intelligence after his return from Pakistan in 2011.

The French newspaper JDD reported Merah's friends described him as a "nice guy" who "got on well with everyone".

His friends found him sometimes devout, but Merah would also go clubbing.

One friend commented that Merah identified "more with Islam than with France."

Another friend said that Merah had been seen in a Toulouse night club three weeks before the attacks.