19-year-old Adel Kermiche was a local man who was known to intelligence services after his failed bids to reach Syria to wage jihad. Kermiche first tried to travel to Syria in March 2015 but was arrested in Germany. Upon his return to France he was placed under surveillance and barred from leaving his local area.
But less than two months later he slipped away and was intercepted in Turkey making his way towards Syria again.
He was sent back to France and detained until late March this year when he was released on bail. He had to wear an electronic tag, surrender his passport and was only allowed to leave his parents home for a few hours a day. One former school acquaintance remembered Kermiche as a normal teenager who became obsessed with hardline interpretations of the Koran after the attack on the satirical Charlie Hebdo magazine in January 2015 and would later urge his friends to “fight for our brothers”.
“He tried to indoctrinate us,” said the 18-year-old, who gave his name only as Redwan.
Kermiche and an another man arrived during morning mass in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, a working-class town near Rouen, northwest of Paris, where the 85-year-old parish priest, Father Jacques Hamel, was leading prayers. “They forced him (Father Jacques Hamel) to his knees and he tried to defend himself and that’s when the drama began,” Sister Danielle, who escaped as the attackers slayed the priest, told RMC radio.
“They filmed themselves. It was like a sermon in Arabic around the altar,” the nun said.
Three other worshippers were held hostage until the assailants were killed, one of them was badly wounded during the attack. President Francois Hollande, visiting the scene, in Saint Etienne-du-Rouvray, said the attackers had committed a “cowardly assassination” and France would fight IS “by all means”.
Pope Francis decried the “pain and horror of this absurd violence”.

Source: Reuters