Text to mom announcing death reveals 3rd Bataclan attacker

PARIS (AP) – The third gunman who terrorized Paris’ Bataclan concert hall before being killed last month in the attack was identified Wednesday as a Frenchman who left for Syria in 2013. The development came after his mother received a text message announcing his death and gave a DNA sample to police.

The news was further confirmation that the deadly Paris attacks were carried out largely, if not entirely, by Europeans trained by the Islamic State group in Syria.

All the Nov. 13 attackers identified so far have been from France or Belgium, native French speakers who joined Islamic State extremists. The Bataclan attackers, who carried automatic weapons and wore suicide vests, were responsible for the worst of the carnage. Of the 130 killed in Paris that night, nearly three-quarters died at the concert venue.

Foued Mohamed-Aggad left Strasbourg for Syria in late 2013, a French judicial official said, at a time when about a dozen young men from the eastern French city headed to the war zone. Some returned of their own will – including his brother – telling investigators they were disgusted by what they had seen. The Frenchman believed to have recruited them for IS, Mourad Fares, is also under arrest. All are charged with terror-related offenses and face trial.

Mohamed-Aggad’s mother received a text message in English 10 days ago announcing her son’s death “as a martyr” on Nov. 13 – a typical way IS notifies families of casualties. Then she gave French police a DNA sample which showed that one of her sons was killed inside the Bataclan, his brother’s lawyer said, confirming an account by French officials, who requested anonymity to release details of the investigation.