A 22-year-old man has been arrested in France in connection with a knife attack on soldier Cedric Cordier near Paris on Saturday, officials say.
The suspect, known as a radical Muslim, was detained on Wednesday morning in the Yvelines region, 45 km (28 miles) southwest of the capital, Interior Minister Manuel Valls said.
The “dangerous” man was traced thanks to evidence at the scene, he added.
French anti-terrorist investigators are handling the case, saying the soldier was targeted because of his profession.
Witnesses had earlier described the attacker as a bearded man of North African origin.
The man, named Alexandre, was monitored on security cameras and seen taking off his robe and running away wearing European clothes, officials said.
The stabbing took place three days after the killing of British serviceman Drummer Lee Rigby outside a barracks in the Woolwich area of London.
French President Francois Hollande said that while all theories would be investigated, there was no evidence to link the two attacks.
A 22-year-old man has been arrested in France in connection with a knife attack on soldier Cedric Cordier near Paris on Saturday
The suspect was a petty criminal known to police, correspondents say.
Speaking on French TV on Wednesday, Manuel Walls warned against jumping to early conclusions.
The minister said that although there were signs that the suspect may be linked to radical Islam, the investigation was still in its early stages.
“I remain cautious,” the minister said.
“We need to know more about his motives, his background, his family environment.”
Pfc Cedric Cordier, 23, was approached from behind and stabbed in the neck with a small-bladed knife in La Defense business district on Saturday.
The attack took place in a busy underground hall where shops and public transport lines converge in La Defense business district.
The victim was in a stable condition after the attack, police said.
France is on high alert following a threat from the North African wing of al-Qaeda, related to the country’s involvement in Mali.
The raised alert level is one of the reasons why soldiers are on patrol in central Paris and other high-profile areas, correspondents say.
Last March, soldiers were targeted by Islamist militant Mohamed Merah in the Toulouse area of southern France.
He shot dead three French paratroopers then attacked a Jewish school, murdering three children and an adult, before being killed in a police siege.
A disturbing flurry of text messages has revealed Tamerlan Tsarnaev was willing to lay down his life for his Muslim faith.
According to Fox News, in 2011, Tamerlan Tsarnaev sent text messages to his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, indicating that he was willing to die for Islam.
In 2011, Tamerlan Tsarnaev sent text messages to his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, indicating that he was willing to die for Islam
Around the same time he sent those texts, suspicions were brewing about the 26-year-old former boxer.
Last week, U.S. officials described to the AP what the government knew about Tsarnaev since he was first placed on the intelligence community’s radar 18 months ago.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the ongoing investigation.
Russia’s internal security service, the FSB, sent information to the FBI about Tamerlan Tsarnaev on March 4, 2011.
The Russians told the FBI that Tsarnaev, an ethnically Chechen Russian immigrant living in the Boston area, was a follower of radical Islam and had changed drastically since 2010.
Because of the subsequent FBI inquiry, Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s name was added to a Homeland Security Department database used by U.S. officials at the border to help screen people coming in and out of the U.S.
William Plotnikov is a new figure that emerged in the story of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s conversion to violent extremist Islam.
Nicknamed “The Canadian”, William Plotnikov was a 23-year-old boxer from Canada who Tamerlan Tsarnaev met online and may have visited during his trip to Russia last year.
William Plotnikov, a Muslim convert from Toronto, could have spurred Tamerlan Tsarnaev to direct his against the US, new reports reveal.
The Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta reports that Tamerlan Tsarnaev went to Dagestan – a Russia republic torn by jihadist terrorism – to join an Islamic militia and fight against Russian forces in July 2012.
One day after William Plotnikov was killed by Russian security forces, Tamerlan Tsarnaev fled to Moscow. The next day he was back to the United States.
William Plotnikov, a Muslim convert from Toronto, could have spurred Tamerlan Tsarnaev to direct his against the US
Another contact Tamerlan Tsarnaev had in Dagestan – Makhmud Mansur Nidal, 19 – was also killed by Russian forces during his six-month visit to the war-torn region.
Novaya Gazeta suggests William Plotnikov may have turned Tamerlan Tsarnaev against the United States.
“It seems that Tamerlan Tsarnaev came to Dagestan with the aim of joining the insurgents. It didn’t work out..,” a security source told the newspaper.
“After Nidal and Plotnikov were destroyed and he lost his contacts, Tsarnaev got frightened and fled.”
Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s parents moved them to the US from the troubled Dagestan region years ago.
The similarities between William Plotnikov – who was called “The Canadian” by the other militiamen – and Tamerlan Tsarnaev are uncanny.
Both men were competitive boxers as teenagers. Both seemed to have suddenly turned to radical Islam in 2009 and quickly became interested in violent jihad being waged in Dagestan – where Islamic militias are targeting the moderate Sufi Muslims and fighting Russian security forces who control the region.
Both were born in Russian republics and later moved to the West, where they struggled to fit in.
It is unknown whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev and William Plotnikov ever met in person.
At one point, Tamerlan Tsarnaev visited his aunt in Toronto – the same city where Plotnikov lived with his parents.
William Plotnikov seized and interviewed by Russian authorities in 2010. At that time told them that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was one of the people he communicated with online.
Novaya Gazeta reports that the two communicated via a site associated with the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, a non-governmental organization.
William Plotnikov was then released by the Russians and went on to join an Islamic militia and take up arms against Russian security forces in Dagestan.
In February 2012, Tamerlan Tsarnaev traveled to Dagestan.
Novaya Gazeta reports that he was seen “more than once” by Russian intelligence units with Makhmud Mansur Nidal, 19, a half-Palestinian Dagestani who is believed responsible for a twin bomb attack in the capital Makhachkala that killed 13 people.
[youtube fphfq5Za2eA]
[youtube SGfuGTbCgno]
