Khaled Kelkal

Khaled Kelkal ( _ar. خالد كلكال) (April 28 1971 – September 29, 1995) was a French terrorist of Algerian origin affiliated with the GIA. He was involved in several gunfights and was one of the men behind the
islamist bombing campaign in France in 1995.

Life of Khaled Kelkal

Early life

Born in 1971 in Mostaganem, Algeria, Khaled Kelhal, still an infant, came with his mother to live with his father, an immigrant, in Vaulx-en-Velin, a suburb of Lyon. He had four sisters and three brothers. He had good grades in school and had a normal life until attending "La Martinière" "lycée" in Lyon.

He then slipped into delinquence, probably under the influence of his elder brother Nouredine (sentenced to 9 years in prison for armed robbery). In 1990, Kelkal was sentenced to 4 months with probation for traffic in stolen cars. A few months afterward, he was arrested for thefts using cars as battering rams to enter private properties. He was sentenced to 4 years of prison.

Involvement with Islamism

Serving his time from the 27th of July 1990 to the 27th of July 1992, he met another prisoner called "Khelif", an Islamist who had flown from France to evade prison. Returning to France in 1989 he had been sentenced to 7 years in prison. While in jail, Khelif attempted to recruit Algerians to man militant organisations in Algeria.

After his release, Kelkal regularly attended the Bilal Mosque in Vaulx-en-Velin; the mosque was headed by integrist imam Mohamed Minta, a sympathiser of the "Foi et Pratique" ("Faith and practice") fundamentalist organisation. In 1993, Kelkal went to Mostaganem, in Algeria, to visit his family. There, he was probably recruited by one of the radical branches of the GIA, headed by Djamel Zitouni, whose aim was to "punish France".

Criminal record

On the 11th of July 1995, Kelkal was involved in the assassination of Imam Sahraoui, in his mosque in Paris. Sahraoui was considered too moderate by the GIA, and might have attempted to steal money from them.

Four days later, in Bron, a suburb of Lyon, Kelkal opened fire on gendarmes at a checkpoint and evaded arrest.

Terrorist actions

On the 26th of August 1995, during the islamist bombing campaign in France, a gas bottle equipped with a detonation system was found near the Paris-Lyon TGV railway, near Cailloux-Sur-Fontaines (Rhône). The device had not exploded, and was found to be similar to the one which had been set off on the 25th of July in the Saint-Michel RER station.

Fingerprints of Khaled Kelkal were found on the bomb, and a frantic search immediately started; Kelkal was designed "n°1 public enemy", and 170 000 photographs were displayed in all public places in France.

Death and polemics

On 29th of September 1995, after several days of chasing in the forest of Malval, in hills near Lyon, Khaled Kelkal was found in a place called "La Maison Blanche". He attempted to resist arrest and was shot dead by the gendarmes of EPIGN.

Kelkal's death was shown on television, and a polemic arose about the exact reasons for the shooting. On the television footage, as the gendarmes get close to the body of Kelkal, one of them can be heard yelling "Finis-le, finis-le !" ("Finish him, Finish him !"). However, it seems that even though he was shot in the leg, Kelkal had aimed a pistol at the gendarmes, who opened fire in self-defence.

Aftermath

Kelkal was carrying an address book which allowed the police to arrest part of the terrorist network. A few days afterward, Boualem Bensaïd, Kelkal's superior, was arrested in Paris, as he was setting details for a bombing in a market of Lille.

Further investigations demonstrated that Kelkal had been the hand behind the car bomb which had exploded in front of a Jewish school on the 7th of September 1995 in Villeurbanne, a suburb of Lyon, precisely at the hour of the exit of the schoolchildren (out of sheer luck, the school clock was late, and no child was present when the bomb exploded).

ee also

* 1995 Islamist terror bombings in France
* Armed Islamic Group (GIA)
* Boualem Bensaïd