The gunman charged over a foiled 2015 train attack told a French court Wednesday that he had targeted only American soldiers after refusing instructions from an Islamic State ringleader to kill members of the European Commission he was falsely told were in the train car.


Ayoub El Khazzani, who had been armed with an arsenal of weapons including a Kalashnikov rifle, said the attack on the fast train from Amsterdam to Paris was planned as an act of vengeance for bombings of civilians in Syria, which he saw during a brief stay there.


The month-long trial for attempted terrorist murder opened Nov. 16. El Khazzani risks life in prison if convicted.


Three accomplices, who were not on the train, sat beside him in the heavily guarded Paris courtroom.


El Khazzani, a Moroccan, wounded a French-American who managed to briefly yank the Kalashnikov from his hands before the three vacationing Americans — who were longtime friends — took him down.



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https://www.westernjournal.com/islam...e67b2f02003c45